#CancelEverything Indeed

Photo by L N on Unsplash

So we have a pandemic on our hands. We are frazzled, panicked, desperate to stay in the know about what’s happening and where. We want to protect ourselves and our loved ones from a virus that is wrapped up in bio-weapon conspiracies and bulk-bought toilet paper…for some reason?

I’m just as confused as you are on that last one…

Journalists are banned from reporting on the situation in China, Italy’s in lockdown, the Eiffel Tower is closed, My Chemical Romance has cancelled their appearance in the Download music festival in Australia, and the beloved Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have contracted the virus and are in isolation. (Dear lord, say it ain’t so!) In these recent developments, Twitter has been playing up the hashtag ‘CancelEverything’, and it certainly feels that way. All our favourite first-world things are being cancelled. Should we be complaining? Should we be worried?

I don’t think so.

Because this is our chance to truly #CancelEverything

#CancelDeforestation

#CancelUnpaid/UnderpaidLabour

#CancelDeadlyWorkingConditions

#CancelBigotry

#CancelXenophobia

#CancelVictimBlaming

#CancelAgism

#CancelAblism

#CancelHomophobia

#CancelCorruption

#CancelWeapons

#CancelFamilyViolence

#CancelBullying

#CancelMisogyny&Misandry

#CancelFamine

#CancelPoverty

#CancelBrutality

#CancelDiscrimination

#CancelUnstustainableResources

And the list goes on…

COVID-19 isn’t the only thing in our world that is a sickness to humanity. We can get a vaccine for that soon enough. We need to start thinking about what we can do to cure all the other things that are holding us back as a species, as a society, and as individuals. There is no excuse because the world can change, it is changing, and it will always change, so we might as well change with it.

Stay safe, wash your hands, be thankful for what you have, and be brave enough to fight for a future we can all live in, and not just survive.

-M