PANDEMIC DIARY

MIASMA
JUNE 3, 2022

In its most elemental meaning, miasma refers to a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor. Taken a bit further it defines an oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere besieging, enveloping, and hemming in. It is an uncomfortable feeling - a psychological coral, an emotional enclave - life circling the wagons to protect against the onslaught. I was reminded of this word reading today’s David Brooks’ column in the New York Times referring to opinion writers who “offer priceless life hacks to help you float effortlessly through the miasma of modern existence”. Yet, this was the second opinion piece this morning that utilized the imagery of ‘miasma’. The first was a Monica Lewinsky article in Vanity Fair Magazine (Yes! I read all sorts of things, and this is extremely well written) regarding the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.

Lewinsky cites the science fiction author Greg Fishbone, founder of the microsite Mythoversal, “for the ancient Greeks, a miasma was a moral taint that hung over a person, family, or city after the commission of a crime. The miasma could cause crop failures, cattle disease, stillbirths, and other plagues until it could be dispelled by sacrifice, purification, or upon the death of the guilty party.” Lewinsky goes on to say, “What we have now, arguably, is a “cultural miasma.”

“Bingo”, I thought. That’s what I’m experiencing. Depp/Heard; Jan. 6th; Trump; Putin; Ukraine war; #MeToo; Inflation; Gun Control; and, kids being murdered in schools at the hands of ostensibly older kids; and, a two-party system that has one party acting like the Nurse Ratchet of politics with the rest of us wondering if we are in the Cuckoo’s Nest. Lewinsky points out “…I came to realize that distortion, not objectivity, has evolved into an acceptable lingua franca.” We have become so self-absorbed, so entrenched and drowning in social media that there is hardly a place to go for simple, straight-forward, unfettered news reporting. No one is any longer deciding, developing and determining from facts their own positions. We are awash in the opinions, commentaries, analysis, partialities and politics of others. Worse, all this taking place under the guise and cover of “reporting”. Lewinsky: “We are drenched in the taint of the dirt and aggression of the social media wars.”

Sadly, this today is what is called “the free press”. Can you imagine? Everything we hear or read is smeared with the corruption of bias and stink of partiality. Everything is filtered by the effects on readership. News is too bland, evidently. Our very physical survival…as individuals…as communities…as a nation…is insufficient unto itself to be newsworthy. Enhancement and augmentation are the filter by which stark existence sells. News is not challenging on its own??? - lives being lost on a battlefield; a nation invading another autonomous nation; a pandemic that persists; families falling into poverty; food supplies dwindling - it obviously requires additional color; a slant; an angle; added perspective, some so-called expert’s point of view to help us grasp the gravity of the situation.

On the May 24th podcast, Now and Then, hosted by Heather Cox Richardson, an award-winning historian, she spoke with Joanne Freedman, attorney and historian, about the American Founders interest in a free press, explaining how they drew a link between the importance of a free, unbiased press and its impact on government. The press was the only weapon that a people could employ to attack an unjust government. Thomas Jefferson: “A free press brings public officials before the tribunal of public opinion and thereby produces reform peaceably which otherwise must be done by revolution.” Unlike a monarchy, it is the public who determines what direction rule takes, but the public must then know what government is doing and therein lies the role of the free press.

Having become thoroughly exhausted and saddened with all that is going on in the world, I thought about a favorite couplet of mine by Edna St. Vincent Millay in her poem “Moriturus”:

“If I could have
Two things in one:
The peace of the grave,
And the light of the sun.”

May we discover our place of peace and light in this life.
See you all later.