It is unknown when Hollywood will produce a film on coronavirus for survivors to enjoy, like those for survivors of the holocaust and detention camps in World War II.
Nobody knows when this epoch will end, but it seems that the world is living through a long horror movie where humanity is split into two groups: the first infected with Corona, and the other afraid of catching it.
The second group is under voluntary or mandatory home quarantine which means the entire world is obsessively following the news, as there is nothing else for people to do while sitting in front of a TV or a large computer screen.
Traditional audiovisual media and electronic media have become the absolute rulers over our consciousness and our daily lives as if they were in some sort of harmony with the virus. New and exciting media have lost their appeal for their boring and constant coverage of politics, war, and international disputes.
What makes things even more boring are those who are counting on their fingers, presented on satellite TV as political or military experts, and sometimes they even go as far as calling them “strategic thinkers” for a thrill.
Coronavirus’s invasion of the media and social media networks has given way for a new type of experts who were discovered or created by satellite TV, “experts in fighting pandemics”. These are a new type of professors who were imposed on us and who discuss things they know nothing about and often conclude by telling us to avoid sneezing in each others’ faces and wash our hands before and after eating, among other simple things that you would reasonably think satellite TV does not have to produce experts and scientists for.
Putting aside the minority who have turned back to reading after a long hiatus, we who have become addicted to screens, have no other choice but to continue what we are doing in hope that we might hear the only piece of news that could take us out of our catastrophic situation and open a window in our wall of horror and despair. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) announcing that real scientists who have not been on a screen have succeeded in producing a vaccine and it will be in the market at a set time, next month, or maybe next year.
Until that happy news comes, the real people controlling our lives, designers of media campaigns, will continue to creatively produce subjects that go beyond safety and precautionary instructions and require experts who are veterans in answering a single question.
For example, the market has shown those who address the topic that has the most attractive title on how the world will be after “Corona”, and you sitting in front of the TV have to passionately follow how the international situation is constructed by amateurs or astrologers like they were constructing a lego game.
One of them predicted the end of the American era and the birth of a Chinese era at the level of global leadership. Some predicted the end of globalization and the return to nationalism and racism, while others decided that Corona has proved that globalization is the fate of a world where countries, societies, and institutions are interdependent, especially that the ghost of the virus controls peoples’ minds and stirs a new fear of what the future may bring.
In another domain, social media networks where the media is much more influential than traditional media has shown that the sorcery that was limited to ancient times has become very widespread in the 21st century. In fact, it has become a cure for that which does not have a cure, not only for coronavirus but for cancer and even osteoporosis. Whoever is following the sorcerer’s instructions is satisfied by saying a few prayers to gain immunity against all diseases, and will not step in a hospital, which they believe are a source of disease rather than places for treating them.
In our prison that began with a sneeze in China and will continue until further notice all around the world, until the WHO announces a magical and effective vaccine, we have no choice but to continue to sit in front of our screens and listen to the revelations of satellite TV guests. Whoever has an alternative, please step up and tell us.
