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Comment by dpc_pw | Hacker News Reader

When exactly did our societies became so cuddly, childish, weak and pathetic to even ask these questions?

How would this society fight any large scale war? Or make any large scale sacrifice like people fixing up consequences of Chernobyl disaster did?

People used to rather die for honor, than live in shame. Had duels, took risky lifestyles, discovering new things and so on. Fought and died for their ideas.

And now what? Wrap yourself in a blanket and lie scared on the bed?

What's the point of living, if we're too afraid to die to actually live?

I am pessimistic on changes of survival of western civilization.

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> Or make any large scale sacrifice

Sacrifice is exactly what people aren't doing and why we're living through this disaster.

The sacrifice we should be looking at is not the risk of catching COVID-19. It's that of following a set of rules that drastically minimize the spread of the disease. Simple rules, by the way.

If everyone had the kind of thinking some (most?) Asian societies have (collective first, individual second), we'd be looking at a much different world right now. I'm thinking mainly of Taiwan.

But no, we have to deal with people throwing tantrums because they can't wear a piece of cloth over their faces.

Yeah, I'm sure you are making such a sacrifice, working from home, having to eat doordash delivered food instead of a proper restuarant one. So virtuous. Here, have this medal.

You presume to know me.

I actually pick up food from local restaurants around me.

I (and many other people) continued to pay my gym membership when they had to close due to the lockdown, to support them during that time.

And so on.

I don't even have the option not to wfh (and even if I had, why would I go to the office and risk unnecessary exposure to the virus?), since my office closed for our safety even before government lockdowns became a thing.

I dunno, my take on it is how can we fight a large scale war if we can't even stay in our homes for a couple months instead of going out to bars / concerts / sports events. On the scale of sacrifices that is pretty small compared to going to war or fixing a nuclear meltdown, and we can't even manage that.

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