The good, the bad and the brain-dead

As it often happens, in extreme circumstances the human race shows its best and its worst.

In these difficult days, where Italy has taken very harsh measures to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, I have seen great dimonstrations of humanity, responsibility, and of a rediscovered sense of community.

While facing an invisible danger, that hits the most vulnerable sectors of society particularly hard (but it’s not limited to them), many have not only understood the emergency, but they made themselves available, in different ways, to try to improve the situation and to transform, as much as possible, a grave crisis in an opportunity for growth.

I want to thank all these people from the bottom of my heart:

Thanks to Tiziana, and all the people working in the basic goods area, because they keep supplying us with the essential.

Thanks to Federica, and all those working in public order, because they are facing exhausting shifts, for a mainly thankless task.

Thanks to Giulia, and to all the health and medical professionals, that are doing the impossible.

Thanks to Mattia, and to all the parents taking care of their children, and lessening fear with a smile, a game, a cake.

Thanks to Domenico, and to all those that buy groceries for people in need.

Thanks to Irene,  and to all the people making their time and skills freely available, because they are making the difference.

Thanks to Emiliano, and all those that understand that we need to stay home.

Thanks to Kim, that shares her stories and fears to alert a country that is late in reacting.

Thanks to Marcus, reminding us that old people, immunosuppressed people, people with pathologies have a right to live.

Thanks to Laura, that canceled an event in which she put time and effort, because it’s the right thing to do.

Thanks to all of you, and to those I forgot to mention, because the ugly always jumps to attention, but it’s the daily acts of kindness and dedication that keep alive the web that sustains us.

We have seen the ugly as weel: the selfish and meaningless escapes, the “me first”, the shameful political and economic speculation. The choices we make in these moments say much more than a river of words, and they echo for a longer time. 

There are also people I don’t want to thank. 

These days, I have read it all: “Everything is all right: it’s natural selection”; “It’s perfection, we have to be thankful for this blessing”; “This moment is a gift: we get rid of dry branches” … I could go on and on. 

This spiritual bypassing, where everything that one  doesn’t want to face is denied, and fear, anger and anguish get repressed, is really helping no-one: it has no positive effects, because on the one hand it pushes people to underestimate the situation and to behave irresponsibly, and on the other hand it worsens the psychological situation, because after repression a crisis is sure to follow.

All of this, however, is not only useless, it’s also spitting in the face of the most vulnerable people (that become leftovers, waste, a dead weight) and of all the people working non-stop to try to save lives and to protect our community.

There have been people in a not so far past, that have pushed this idea of human and social evolution: if we peel these layers of glitter and saccharin pseudo-spirituality, what do we find?

We find these fine people:

Let’s do a good thing: if you want to blather suavely about natural selection, why don’t you give up for life every kind of medical care, go live in the woods and procure your own food, clothes and shelter. If you survive, THEN you can talk about natural selection. Otherwise just shut that gob. 

So, I would like to extend my personal message to all the people writing and sharing this kind of considerations.

Are you ready? Here it comes…

Fuck you and your inability to face pain, fear and death; fuck your hypocrisy; fuck the nazi ideals hidden under tons of unicorns, crystals and omeopathic remedies.

This toxic waste keeps going around because most of us (myself included) avoids using harsh tones, maybe because we fear wounding someone, or because it’s easier to avoid conflict, or because we don’t want to get ostracized by entire parts of the community in which we live and work. It’s no longer the time to let it go.

Every time you come across these kinds of arguments, I’m inviting you to answer with a well placed: Fuck Off. 

If you find yourself fearing repercussions in this life or in the next, I hereby officially allow you to charge all this (Sin? Karma? Low Vibrations? Whatever) on me: you can say “Giulia told me to tell you to fuck off”, and, to this end, I’m offering a handy commemorative holy picture, to be used as a spiritual shield, so that your soul can remain unsullied even in the midst of raging profanity. 

And too bad if this means that in the hereafter I will find 72 incels with a MAGA hat, or that I will be reborn as a tick on a moose’s ass, or that I will vibrate so low that they will use me for oil extraction.

It would be worth it.

Giulia Turolla, 03/12/2020