2020 has serious series finale vibes. Around every corner, a new bombshell. At every turn, a new major development. The hits just keep on coming and coming at a dizzying pace. We’re basically at the point now where Daenarys is just flying around on a dragon burning everything to the ground just for the hell of it. Plot holes abound. Why introduce Murder Hornets if they aren’t going to factor into the story? And why kill off one of your more popular characters (Kobe Bryant) in the first act for no reason? Forget about jumping the shark. If you wrote the story of 2020 the script would get thrown out for being too unrealistic. Experiencing the Great Depression, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, and the racial unrest of 1968 all at the same time? Come on! There’s no way that would ever happen all at once. And yet here we are.
In fact, so far in 2020…we’ve had a global pandemic with over 115,000 dead in the U.S., racial protests/riots after the death of George Floyd, the President of the U.S. using chemical weapons against the American people for a photo op, over 40 million people unemployed, Trump’s impeachment and acquittal, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and alleged suicide, Australian wildfires, Murder Hornets, being on the brink of World War III over the assassination of an Iranian general, Harry and Meghan leaving royalty, protests in Hong Kong, J.K. Rowling feuding with transgendered women, Kobe Bryant dying, Georgia’s recent voting issues, and UFOs were confirmed! And it’s only June!
And all this comes after a 2019 highlighted by mass shootings, nearly going to nuclear war with North Korea, the inhumane treatment of migrant caravans trying to seek asylum in the U.S., the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris, the widespread destruction of the Amazon rain forest due to wildfires, Brexit, a college admission scandal, a trade war with China, school strikes for Climate Change, the Me Too Movement, and a raid on Area 51.
At this point it’s fair to wonder if things will ever get back to normal. To a time where the only things we cared about were keeping up with the Kardashians, managing our fantasy football teams, and doing it for the Gram while we Netflix and chill. But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon and we shouldn’t want it to. All of this turmoil, as horrific and horrible as it is, is really an opportunity. A chance to make the post pandemic world a better place. And that’s exactly what’s been happening. Just look around. Statues of Christopher Columbus and other monuments to slavery are getting toppled all over the world. Military bases dedicated to confederate war heroes are getting renamed. Companies and corporations are condemning racism left and right. NASCAR is even banning confederate flags at their events. America is finally waking up to its horrid past. There is a real momentum right now to establish lasting change. And we shouldn’t squander it.
We should reform police policies, pour more money into education and social services, make it easier to vote, institute a Universal Basic Income, and do about a dozen other things that I can’t recall right now because I’m so burnt out after thinking about all the horrible things that have happened over the last two years.
But there is a path to a better future. I’m certain of that. We just have to find it. It won’t be easy. We already have a comically long list of obstacles lying ahead of us. No Hollywood executive in their right mind would greenlight a script with a premise this ridiculous. It’s the first half of End Game all over. The war has been lost. Thanos has won. All hope has faded. But then again crazier things have happened. The Avengers did assemble. The Night King was defeated. No matter how ridiculous the plots are, no matter how bad the writing gets, the good guys always win. So, who knows. Maybe we will be able to recover when all is said and done. Emerge from the triple threat of pandemic, economic depression, and racial unrest in a better place. That which doesn’t kill makes you stronger and all that. And if not? Well, at least we would have gone out in a blaze of glory.
2020 is out of control. Just like Daenerys.
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