The Shoe On The Other Foot?
What if Old People were reckless, and young people were the ones who died?
No one would have believed that one of the biggest ‘pastimes’ we’d all take up these past few months is turning on the morning news bulletins to see whether the numbers of infections has gone up or down, peaked or plateaued. It was inconceivable that every day almost ALL the interviews and guests we’d see on the tele and hear on the radio would be health experts, epidemiologists, or disease professors. Not to mention the novel sport of waiting to see the next ridiculous thing to come from the tweets of POTUS; if they weren’t so terrifying in their content, they’d be truly laughable.
Many of us have loved ones and relatives in their later years. Some, still leading active and independent lives, some who need a bit of a hand, and some who are totally dependent on others to get through a day. There are some who have been ‘locked down’ in their aged care homes for months now, in the hope of avoiding the perils that have gripped our selfish world. Our senior citizens must watch on in horror and disbelief as they see people charge into shops or police checkpoints, phone in hand, telling anyone and everyone that it’s their ‘right’ do what they want when they want. Or the young people who’ll party all night long in huge groups, just because they ‘want to.’ Or the ludicrously narcissistic teenagers who do wrong thing, then think nothing of lying about it whilst they happily go about infecting unsuspecting innocents.
Imagine for a minute that things were totally the other way around. Imagine that a disease spread across the world that was largely generated and carried by the elderly. But, in an extra twist, even when infected our elders remained largely immune to its nasties… and that the major threat provided by this new disease was to the young. So now, the oldies hold all the Aces. They’re carrying the disease amongst the community. They go out shopping, refusing to wear masks because its their right. They grab an ale or two at the pub, regaling tales of the old days with their mates because they can. They’ll ride their mobility scooters through the middle of the crowds at the markets on the weekends, they’ll stand in the queues to get their glasses of wine and local tasty delicacies at our festivals with no concern about keeping their distance. They’ll go on a holiday the beach, the snow or the mountains, feeling a little bit under the weather, but thinking “she’ll be right, I’m all good, even if I’ve got it I’ll only get a little bit sick.”
Imagine the backlash from the younger ones (or even the selfish middle-aged ones) if the current shoe were on the other foot. All hell would break loose, the young ones would be taking things into their own hands, again thinking only of themselves, but this time to save their skin. There’d be retribution, payback, violence, vicious action taken, because now there’s a consequence that might intrude into the world of the self-absorbed.
Those from the older generation didn’t grow up or live in a world where the only person they thought about was themselves. Or their next party. Or their holiday. Or their 15 minutes of fame. They wouldn’t show the world that level of disrespect, knowing that their actions could potentially kill the Gen Y’s or Gen Z’z. They’d think globally, not locally. I bet infamous Gen X-er ‘Karen from Bunnings’ would do an about-face and post a vid about her ‘rights’ if she saw an elderly statesperson out and about and coming toward her.
Thank goodness this isn’t the case.