Endurance and The Coronavirus
In 1914, Shackleton’s crew survived two years trapped in Antarctic ice—not one life lost. No sacrifice. No hero died so others could live. Yet in 2020, we called frontline workers heroes—then ignored them. While nurses fought COVID, we rushed to concerts. 🌀 What does survival really cost?
This story, especially in 2020, is important. First, just as an adventure story, like in my science fiction, someone is going to pay the price for the adventure. There is usually a character who will sacrifice their lives for the better good. Sometimes, a character will charge into battle to give everyone else a chance to escape.
But in this story, that didn't happen. With the crew of the Endurance, no one gave their lives. No one sacrificed themselves. They all survived.
Now think of 2020. Think of COVID-19, and of the coronavirus, and how we, especially as Americans, have reacted to this pandemic. We didn't jump into it altogether and proclaim that everyone is going to survive. No, that didn't happen. We didn’t even say, “hey, one of you go out there and die for the rest of us.”
Actually, I guess we did. Early in 2020, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas said. “Maybe you should go out there and get sick.” His argument was that perhaps if grandma and grandpa get sick, then maybe they would die, but that will be better for the rest of us. He honestly thought we were all fine with that. I called it “the cult of death.”
Now think of the first responders. Especially here in America, where we are always making a big deal about the first responders. Think about how they raced into the buildings on September 11, 2001, and how they have brought out survivors from the forest fires. Think about the mass shooting in Las Vegas when the cops went towards the bullets to stop that man from shooting all those people.
But in 2020, when it became inconvenient to support the first responders, when individuals were going to have their dinner interrupted, or their movie, or concert time dropped, or their basketball or football game cancelled, well then screw the first responders. Screw the doctors and the nurses who are working six days a week 20 hours a day to see our loved ones through this difficult time.
Those nurses and doctors are first responders. Every time an individual takes some selfish action to go to a game or a family gathering, people get sick. People go to the hospital, and people die.
So I want you to think about the crew of the Endurance and how they survived through 1914 to 1916 on the Antarctica ice. Some of these individuals ended up dying in World War One, where they died in combat. That's a whole other thing if you have an ethical dilemma with violence the way that I do. All of them survived the 1918 flu, which was two years after they survived the Antarctic. I think that's important. That the crew of the Endurance survived, and I think that it's an essential tale to revisit now in 2021.
