We Will Get Fooled Again...and Again...and Again

by Don Hall

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again, no, no

Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

What does a pandemic and the ensuing reaction to it reveal? We have the time now, away from the grind of what we accepted as the best we could have in this world, to fully reflect upon that question. For the tiniest percentage of human beings, things were going pretty goddamned well — I read about a wealthy cat who couldn’t be bothered with a deal on securing a permanent seat on a private jet for just over regular business class prices because he never waited in line at the airport. For the overwhelming majority of us, we have accepted the paycheck-to-paycheck existence.

The lifestyle that requires working for just enough to pay for the things we need (but mostly want) to survive. Being told in corporate mantra that if we take a sick day, we’ll be penalized for succumbing to illness. Bowing our heads to the idea that our worth is only valued at the cost of cup of Starbucks coffee per hour of labor.

Most of us, when told by scientists the plain facts about pandemic, understand on some fundamental level, that quarantine is a reprieve from an economic model that doesn’t value us or our time and effort much. Sure, there are always some who get in line with the wealthiest as they advertise the fall of an economy that only truly benefits the rich and famous, but those are the folks with so little imagination as to only see hope through the lens of a camera handed to them.

None of this is new although it feels new because we have never personally experienced it before.

Social Distancing? Cancelled events? Closed businesses? Every modern pandemic has had these measures evoked by the reigning governments. Backlash against these measures, a refusal to take seriously the threat, and more death as a result? Every pandemic has resulted in this as well.

Economic and political fallout? Completely normal — Christ, we have these circumstances hit us almost like clockwork every 20-30 years. Gen Z, for all their obvious faults, have endured two major crises in their short lives. Born into the 9/11 chaos, coming of age during the COVID-19 world.

What we’re experiencing is not a “new” normal. It’s just normal.

I’m reminded of the look of horror and shock on Chris Evans’s face at the end of Snowpiercer, when Ed Harris casually explains that his revolution from the back of the train had been manipulated. That the resistance was both expected and necessary to keep the balance of power intact. Like Neo in The Matrix Trilogy, nothing about the rise up of the 99% is original. It is simply another predictable cog in a pre-ordained machine.

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

What is revealed is not a sense of the inevitable although that response seems perfectly natural. Predictable, even. What is revealed is that in order to subvert this cycle we need to try something different than has been done in the past to see if different results occur.

I find it endlessly fascinating that so many embrace an economic model that has almost never worked for them as something essential to return. Is it better to be without a job and find a new way to survive or to go back to the meaningless dreck of hourly employment for entities that place such low value on your time and life? Is the unknown so terrifying that we’d all rather eat shit soup because, hey, what if we don’t find something better to eat?

Perhaps this is the point when I start wearing the duct tape and foil chapeau but it seems to me that the architects of this cycle have never been our political leaders. I certainly do not see the Democrats and Republicans as the same but I do see that both sides tend to protect the interests of the sustainers of this economy over those of us who labor to build their pyramids for scraps and peanut shells.

Capitalist? Socialist? Communist? All exactly the same when the same interests are in control.

I’m unsure if our competitive nature is hardwired into us. Dana believes we are naturally cooperative. Anecdotally, I can see her point as well as ample evidence to the contrary. She is also completely in touch with the feeling of relief this shutdown of America has engendered in far more people than are willing to admit it. The feeling of always swimming with your nose just above the surface isn’t unusual. To have a mandated moment in time when everyone has to stop is a grand time for reflection.

I remember reading The Loudest Noise in the World when I was a kid. It was about the son of the king of a very powerful country. For his birthday, he decided that what he wanted more than anything was to hear the Loudest Sound in the World.

So the king, loathe to disappoint his offspring, commissioned every diplomat, every emissary, every other king and queen and president and world leader to require that at noon on his son's birthday, every living human being would make as much noise as each could possibly make. Every gun would be shot, every cannon would explode, bombs, pots and pans banged, people shouting, all at exactly noon on the boy's birthday.

Because this was a fictional tale, the king also employed the animal kingdom — all of whom could not only understand the directive but also somehow tell time. The world, ordinarily at odds with each other, was miraculously unified in this task to create the Loudest Sound in the World.

On his birthday, the boy was incredibly jacked up. He was to sit at the top of the highest tower of the castle and close his eyes. And the clock ticked slowly to the appointed time …5 …4 …3 …2 …1.

And the boy was hit square in the eyes with the overwhelming and beautiful sound of… silence.

As it turned out, every person, every animal, everything wanted to hear the Loudest Sound in the World and at the appointed time, every living creature on the planet held its breath and listened.

And it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever heard.

It is that sound we’re hearing now. To ignore it for more of the same noise we’ve become accustomed to is a mistake. We will be fooled again...and again...and again. Unless we take this awful, wonderful opportunity and rethink ourselves, the new boss will be the same as the old boss.