The COVID death rate for humans from 0-17 years is .001%, according to the CDC. There have been about 400 COVID-related deaths in that age group in the entirety of this era. Unfortunately, the majority of these cases happened with children with various underlying medical conditions. Nevertheless, that number is so minuscule in relation to other diseases, that any comparison is therefore laughable.
Now that we are all agreed, let’s make another salient point: children are used as tools for any nefarious system that wishes to institute fear as a national currency. Whether the numbers are on their side is irrelevant. The point is that no crisis can be wasted when the potential gain is significant. And there are no better prime candidates than an age group that presents themselves as innocent bystanders. They become icons for a greater cause, even though the cause is filled with apocalyptic footnotes. But enough about Greta Thunberg.
Let’s move to a greater point still. The point is that if you consolidate all your worries into one big virus, then every other worry can dissipate. In short, if the entire ecosystem of individual attention can be summarized in COVIDom, then any system can use that data to communicate whatever ideology, philosophy, and rhetoric (Col. 2:8).
The strategy is to put away distracting items and convey a message through one medium rather than a thousand fragments. Therefore, we don’t illuminate the world on Global Warming as an isolated issue, or statist overreach, or LGBTQ agendas–nay; instead, we communicate all these ideas through the lens of COVID. We use suffering children as means to portray a vision that is grander for society.
The idea from now on will be to make the COVID conversation through its many re-creations and variations more and more central to the economic, political, and sociological discourses. After all, if we believe COVID mutations are subtle, contagious, and pernicious, we can begin to use it as a presupposition for all monologues on the world stage.
When we talk about epistemic questions, we–Van Tilian aficionados–talk about the significance of starting with the right presupposition. Everyone has it, whether it be reason or the Koran. We all have a way of looking at the world. What I am arguing is that COVID has become the lens of expectation and conversation. It has become the opening scene of life in Shakespearean proportion. To COVID or not to COVID is more than a question, but the answer to many disputes.
My proposal is we overturn this desire for ultimacy in worldview thinking. We must change the conversation into other ultimate starting points: Scriptures, Feasts, Hymns, and more Scriptures. Forsake the temptation to derive courage and strength from the attempt at starting life again from a separate worldview, even if little children are manipulatively used as memes for their cause.
