Pessimism Requires Faith and Determination

Before I get into the meat of this post, I have a word of encouragement for neurotics. You shouldn’t be disturbed by good news about coronavirus. If the facts show that the epidemic is going away, you can continue to enjoy panicking and bringing other people down with your rotten attitude. Just ignore the facts. After all, that’s what you’ve been doing for weeks.

I have heard some really wacky things from people who seriously believe this is an Omega Man situation. There is no excuse for that.

So. Without troubling you with numbers, my prediction equation is off by a little over 6% today, on the HIGH side. This may actually mean something. Ordinarily, I would dismiss it, but the Johns Hopkins graphs show the epidemic peaking and declining all over the world, so I feel good about it.

To make it clear, my equation, which predicted things with crazy precision for a while, is now OVERESTIMATING the rate of infection, and this is what I expected and hoped for.

Maybe we’ll get out of this thing without a major hysteria recession. But we still have to pay back 6 trillion dollars in panic spending.

I’m not saying infections aren’t increasing. I’m saying the rate at which they are increasing appears to be decreasing. That’s good enough. And all I’m discussing is the total number of infections. I don’t know what the number of active infections is doing. Obviously, it’s lower. I could check, but why?

I’m very glad to see people getting away from preachers. The lockdown has been helpful with that. I’m texting a friend, and she is as annoyed with preachers as I am. She says Joel Osteen and Kanye West are doing some kind of project. Totally predictable. It’s wonderful that Kanye West realized God exists, but who told him he should be in charge of anything? And Joel Osteen is worse than smallpox.

It’s wonderful to know a couple of people who are on the same page. It’s especially great to see younger people and minorities rejecting the Kool-Aid. Traditionally, they have been much more vulnerable than the rest of us. You don’t have to be limited by your social circle when God communicates with you directly.

I hope tomorrow my equation is off by 10% or more. Maybe next week, it will be so far off, there will be no doubt.

But don’t let me discourage you if you enjoy moaning and predicting catastrophe. Just believe whatever you want and enjoy your misery. It won’t be hard. You’ve had plenty of practice. And if anyone tries to bring you out of it, scold them and try to make them feel bad. Because that totally makes sense.