I thought the reading was super interesting, its informative without being dense or dull, which is super amazing when I’m distracted by 1000 other things and really need to be focusing on work. I found the difference between inherent constraints and imposed constraints to be slightly blurred at first, but as I worked on my constraint map and was trying to come up with examples in my head they got easier though I’m still not 100% sure that I completely get it. I really appreciated the section of the reading where it talked about not assuming rational and reasonable behavior as one of the constraints (this was the Princess Diana Memorial example) since I really feel that this is evident in what’s going on today especially these past couple of days with Governor Wolfe’s constant, and vaguely confusing and unclear, orders about which business need to be closed and which can remain open.
Having to research a prior event that parallels the situation America and the world is in now was both reassuring as well as grounding. One event I chose was the flu pandemic of 1918. Although I already knew a bit about the pandemic from family discussions, I had never really sat down to read about it. It had this effect of showing me that we as humans have dealt with very similar things in the past, and though causalities will occur, it will get better and it isn’t the end of the world. This particular research was also grounding in the severity of the situation as it talked about how over the summer the pandemic slowed down only to come back with startling causalities in October of 1918. It drives home the fact that our lives may not be “normal” for a long time, not just a couple of weeks or months. Another part of my research led me to the Black Death that plagued Europe during the medieval ages. Strangely enough, I found this research to be extremely calming as I learned that the Black Death is actually partially responsible for the increase of wages and the fall of the surfs system within Europe as the lower class gained more agency in demanding higher prices for their goods and for their own property. This, along with many discussions with my family, showed that even though its hard now, and will be hard in the foreseeable future, good things can come from worldwide pandemics.
I found that searching the media for responses to the Covid-19 pandemic was extremely frustrating due to the sheer amount of 1. Disbelief in the pandemic due to it being a democratic lie, 2. The misinformation about how to keep yourself safe (holding your breath for 10 seconds does NOT prove whether or not you have Covid-19), 3. People’s unwillingness to change their everyday behaviors and thus putting themselves, their loves ones, and just about everyone else in danger, and 4. People’s selfishness in terms of stockpiling goods at the expense of those who need them. The last one is a big irritant to me since I hear about the shortages in the supply chains for things like hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels, soap, medical masks, etc. from my dad who keeps trying to get some for his store but finds himself unable to. Also, the price gouging is ridiculous (someone tried to sell my dad medical masks for $7.50 per mask which is absurd when hospitals like Geisinger only have a two week supply left and hospitals in Syracuse are having their doctors wear bandanas since they don’t have any masks).
I really liked making the constraint map I thought that it was a really interesting way of looking at the situation. I did find it difficult at times since all the examples seem to be primarily about a product of sorts, and this is more about a system or a lifestyle, but I think it eventually worked. I looked at it as less of personal lifestyle changes and more from a broader sense of how we as a community can work together to make changes. I wound up highlighting things that, for me, connected back to a larger picture. Things like, technology – connecting large groups of people, tradition – how can we change our personal and cultural traditions to weather the pandemic, budget – what sort of money needs are there in ensuing access to things throughout the quarantine time, etc. I focused on constraints that put emphasis on a large-scale change of lifestyle to better protect more people rather than just on what I as a single person can do to protect myself.
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