Here are some words for our current surreal times:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  

Franklin D. Roosevelt said this during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Fear and panic are running rampant these days. More people will be hurt by unreasoning panic than by any virus.

“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all, beware this boy…” 

The Ghost of Christmas Present says that to Scrooge in Charles Dickens’  “A Christmas Carol,” about the children that cling to him. (“Spirit! Are they Yours?” Scrooge says. “They are Man’s,” the ghost replies.)

There is plenty of misinformation and rumor flying around these days, spreading far swifter than any virus. And they are just as dangerous and deadly in the end.

If you do not believe we are in times ruled by ignorance, rumor and fear, just think of the empty shelves where the toilet paper was.

——-jsb. March 18, 2020