This is a "long weekend" for many Americans as Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday of the month of May. There will be fewer picnics and barbecues this year as policies in response to COVID-19 are still in place. Law abiding citizens have still not recieved "the green light" to go and spend time with family and friends.

End of Days

For many people, this "three day weekend" is no different from weekdays or normal weekends. Work, social life, etc. means the same sort of physical thing—waiting at home for some policy to give options for actively making things better. ¹ There are economic limits to how much people can take; insofar as our current way of doing money/economy operates in basically the same, we are witnessing widespread strain—perhaps threat of collapse in some places. ²

Many scheduled things are still in place; businesses, schools, and other organizations are doing what they can to honor contracts—delivering content online, following by phone, etc. However, for many, the concept of "days" erodes as they "are just waiting for all of this to end". The obedient and the conservative wait; meanwhile many people move out to "test the waters" of the re-opening world. Where I live now (Sacramento, CA), it seems that "the flu times two" has been overestimated... ³

The response of many people is to return to daily life as much as policy permits. Walking outside, I see groups of people (probably not from the same household). People waiting for take out food stand apart, but it seems they are honoring "personal space" more so than "social distancing". In other non-COVID times they wouldn't be getting close and cozy with each other.

I maintain my schedule as usual, as much as I previously had a schedule. Sometimes I try to add more schedule/structure than I used to—actively trying to structure my time more to squeeze out some extra productivity. I suspect others are doing the same. Going out to walk/jog, I see lots of routine-governed-looking people walking dogs and stuff so I think I'm not alone in this.

The Next Reaction

How will stuff proceed from here? As expressed in Part 6 of my Corona Virus Diary, I think that we will not see a "universal vaccine". Without a decisively helpful medical thing, I think that the next events people will need to respond to will primarily be dealing with policies of various "stages" of re-opening.

Insofar as economic activity seems to be recovering, politicians will be eager to take credit for stuff going well and will encourage additional re-opening. Insofar as COVID-19 seems to be a scary disease, we'll see conservative measures of keeping stuff shut down—politicians don't want to be credited for being heartless, death reapers overseeing the disaster for economic gain.

Rather than seeing a shift towards more digital stuff, I think that this COVID-19 situation has reminded many people of how important the face-to-face interaction aspect of school/business/etc. is—I predict many people explicitly choosing human options when possible, especially after this stuff fizzles out.

I think that COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on "trusting of experts"; people from all sorts of political camps have seen how money, influence, etc. has pushed the sort of narratives that various actors and organizations promote. Maybe in another post I'll further discuss my thoughts on how perceptions of "globalism" are changing... Let it suffice to say for now that many students' study abroad plans have effectively been trashed by Corona-chan.