As frustration boils in the USA from lack of preparedness, leadership, it is safe to assume that things will get far worse before they get even slightly better. With state governors looking locally instead of Washington for action-centric steps to protect their people, it is incumbent to heed their warning and self-protect, which also helps protect others.
There are three monstrous priorities facing all nations dealing with the current viral epidemic:
- Health and flattening the infection curve, with the need to stay within the capacity and capabilities of healthcare systems.
- Economics, including income and job losses.
- The well-being and mental health of the populace.
The USA finds itself in deep holes on all three critical success criteria, each of which is danger of deepening. Woefully unprepared for the pandemic, our supply chain of medical industry enablers is horribly broken. Economically speaking, the bottom has fallen out of the stock market and job losses are forecast to leap to record highs. Emotionally, the current president’s response to a simple question about reassuring scared citizens got a shocking response that not only ducked the question, but verbally attacked the man who politely asked.
It seems quite apparent that the governors choosing to make hard calls to protect their people are doing the right thing. This then brings things down a level to us, the citizenry, and what we can do to avoid the mass chaos of stress run amok.
For that I looked to Finland. Finland is rated the world’s happiest nation. The USA ranks 19th. The top-ranked Finns focus heavily on five key things:
- Good social support networks. All of us should do ourselves a favor and engage ours.
- Social trust. The Finns have a strong culture of charity, volunteering, donations, and pro-society actions. If you are in a position to help your community, do so.
- Honest governments. Nationally, our leaders have fallen down. Look locally. Support your local governments, which are usually populated by true civil servants and not career politicians. Congress can’t agree on what day it is. The vacuum above them is even worse. Think local, act local, support local.
- Safe environments. In the USA, the horse isn’t just out of the barn, he’s run across the prairie. On a local level, we have to think less lofty than national safety and think more from a micro perspective. What can you do to be safe and to help others around you stay safe?
- Healthy lives. The Finns are big on health, physical and emotional, and their societal values reflect that. We cannot fix all the horrible breakdowns in our system and should not rely on career politicians who have shown little interest in the collective wellbeing of the nation. The Congressional braggadocio of how great our medical system is rates as pure nonsense. We spend by far the most and rank 15th. We need to own this. Expect nothing from Washington. From a personal standpoint, we all need to do our best to make healthy choices.
The gap between the Finnish approach to societal life and ours is too great to bridge with one pandemic. The smart play is to learn from what they do well, and apply those priorities in daily living. We are empowered to behave however we see fit. This seems to be a good time to apply those choices in the best fashion possible.
There are a lot of stressed out people across America. Record gun and ammo sales signal escalating pessimism, not brotherhood optimism. Make prudent, measured decisions about the core elements of positivity and physical wellbeing and hunker down until the battleship starts turning back around.
This is a time for each of us to demonstrate positive leadership through logic-based action, not emotional herd mentality reaction. This week will reveal a worse reality than last week, and next week will continue the trend. It’s up to us to own our personal ways forward. Stay upbeat, positive, busy, and safe.
Best to all,
Ocean Palmer