Why do all the important things not matter anymore?

[Kazzyhoward]

So much seems to have been conveniently forgotten due to Covid.

We're now told to use our cars instead of public transport.

Supermarkets are providing single use carriers free of charge for home deliveries and click n collect.

Councils are collecting excess waste in boxes/bags when previously they'd not empty your wheelie bin if the lid wouldn't close.

GPs are handing out antibiotics like sweets.

Schools don't care about attendance anymore.

Hospital consultants are now happy to speak to patients on the phone.

Councils are mixing recyclables after homeowners have made the effort to separate into the different bags/boxes.

We can get a telephone appointment with a GP despite them insisting face to face appointments were essential.

So, did any of that really matter in the first place if such "rules" and practices have so quickly been forgotten and ignored?

Obvious enough
In a crisis, the most important needs have to be prioritised over others

Same as when individuals have to drop lower priority commitments if they become ill

Of course it matters. I understand you're intent, but those things obviously matter.

The problem is that as a 'world society' with notable exceptions, we were predictably and woefully underprepared for this sort of thing.

So essentially if it's not 'saving lives' it's on pause. It's not a coincidence that 'unprecedented' was rammed into us from day 1 - it's justification for a whole host of things 'because X'.

Since we're pointing out the obvious...since when did it become a thing to have a rolling death counter? Let's keep it. For all causes, shake things up a bit.

Personally I feel like we're victims of our own societal sanitation. Everything can be fixed, everything has a schedule. Age can be extended, disabilities can be mitigated, chronic illness can be controlled.

The answer to your questions is that all those things are 'nice to haves' in a first world reality. We just got a dose of nature doing us over (ironically connected to some of your points re: environment) so in the last few months - ""survival""" has been no.1.

I agree with you. For ages people were going on and on about the environment quite rightly and now all of it seems to have gone out the window. We are back to single use plastic and multiple cars. I think there needs to be a balance. We made so many gains in terms of things being more environmentally friendly and it seems like the only focus is covid now.

My partner works in transport policy - low carbon transport policy. They are running around like loonies at the moment trying to make this all work.

(They are happy about planes)

Because the alternative was worse?

We are in a global pandemic after all - exceptional times

What really upsets me is the thought of all the recyclables going to landfill. Especially when people have been stuck in at home generating far more recyclables than normal (cardboard from internet shopping packaging, cans/bottles of alcohol now pubs & restaurants are closed etc). I was watching the bin wagon from my bedroom this morning - all our neighbours have produced probably twice as much as normal, all organised into the boxes/bags as instructed and it's all being dumped together in the bin wagon along with the non recyclables. All that cardboard, glass and tin/aluminium going into landfill is awful.

It's not the same everywhere. Our recycling is still being collected as normal (alternate recycling and non recycling here) and most likely recycled. I have work clients in the recycled paper and card industry and they're running as normal.

My city doesn't have landfill anyway, all non recyclable waste is incinerated in a waste to energy plant.

I agree with you about the single use stuff though. There's so much litter being produced due to people wearing disposable masks and gloves and all the coffee shops seem to have forgotten about reuseable cups so they don't have to touch customers cups.

Car use is probably still down though because so many people WFH and reduced leisure travel.

The roads have been much quieter on the rare occasions that I've been out and about even at what used to be rush hour.

No change in recycling here. You can request supermarket deliveries with no bags if you want to, or take your own bags to the supermarket.

Maybe some things could be better, for the future, in terms of contact with GPs etc. It's not all negative

People cycling more, I have noticed that.

I know.
I've accumulated more plastic supermarket bags in the last three months than I've probably had in a decade. I will use them all for litter picking though.