I’d like to dedicate this blog to all those people that never leave the
house. To the people right in front of their computer, for days on end. To
those not sneezing. Thank you. Thank you to the doley bludgers sitting in doors
too lazy to even go and pick up your giro. To the grannies staying in, watching
the tv. Thank you. It’s because of you that we have just averted the greatest
natural disaster to afflict the world since the bubonic plague. I’ll never forget
your dedication to your couch.
The story of Swine Flu is spreading a whole lot faster than the disease itself. Technology has actually improved on natures abilty to duplicate and spread. Rumours travel faster than the speed of light. It’s an amazing synergy really, just as Twitter really breaks through into the mainstream we are gifted by the story most suited to. In 140 characters it is possible to give pertinent updates as to what’s going on.
The fear and worry being created by the viral story of the threat is much greater than the threat itself. Unfortunately. I say unfortunately because I I have to admit to hankering towards a huge disaster. Sure millions of people will die but won’t it be exciting! Watching this thing unfold online, in real time will be better than any disaster film. Certainly much more useful than tracking the explosion of Susan Boyle over my computer. Now that’s a mental image that quite frankly no one needed.
The fact is that that most of us only have a clue about how global disasters unfold through watching films. There is no doubt that this has affected how we envisage the future. When Obama was elected there was much talk of the “David Palmer” affect. This is the idea that a black president only became possible by first creating a fictional one that everyone approved of. David Palmer from the series 24, would be an absolute shoe in for an election victory.
There’s no doubt that our experience of disaster movies affects our collective memories of what's going to happen. We don’t have any real knowledge of what might occur or how a disease might spread but we sure have been fed a diet of fictional movies that tend to follow the same path. No wonder fear and panic has been spreading. We know what happens next, some guy gets swine flu and goes on the tube, next minute half of Manhattan has got it, they have to quarantine the whole place, and wild mutants roam the land.
If all this propaganda is being spread by the film and Tv industry shouldn’t we try and control it a little bit? Even it out? What we need right now isn’t disaster films it’s feel good romantic comedies. A guy on the dole falls in love with an infected bird at the job center. The government solves the problem with capitalism, distributes wealth evenly, all go back to farming. Or even a film about a killer virus that was going to wipe out the world and everyone panicked and then nothing happened cos they contained it after 2 days. These are all films I would like to see.
We will never see these films because no one cares about disaster averted. Even worse no one even notices. It’s like the story of a guy who invents the locking cockpit door on 8/11. Would he even be thanked? The guy who doesn’t get stoned in his car and mow down a queue full of people. The woman who doesn’t leave her house when she’s got the killer flu and so it doesn’t spread, and no one dies. These are the heroes we don’t recognize. So let’s hear it for them. Thank you for not leaving your house. For not catching the deadly man flu. For not spreading disease, by going door to door and sneezing on the tube. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten




