RUDIMENTS, pt. 1040
(Smallpox)
I wouldn't think anyone
would be going around in
a huff or a worry now about
these old version of today's
disease atmospheres, but
the look back is thrilling.
Most people now get all
over-baked and crazy over
the social idea of the disease
and it's spread. Of course that
would be so, because our media
and lifestyles now have been
consciously set up and enforced
as 'Social.' People now can't
stand to be alone with themselves
for 2 hours, let alone 2 days or
more. Everything now much
have that coaxing feel of drama,
overwrought and blossoming;
a scream or two of anguish
and anxiety also. It's all put
together that way so that, in
fear, people easily follow orders
Bubonic plague would certainly
show us moderns a few new
card tricks. I am not of the
mind to accept the modern
day, so it really little matters
to me. What I see presented
today as virus-response is a
bunch of weak-knee'd, TV
bred, socially morose aiders
and abetters of emotionalism
and panic. A real stupid, mass
hallucinatory, panic that just
feeds in itself.
-
Smallpox was dubbed 'the
speckled monster.' Before
it was eradicated, it may have
killed over a billion people.
No one, still, knows where
Smallpox originated - the
virus, part of the same genus
that includes cowpox, camelpox,
and monkeypox - is believed
to have first infected humans
around the time that people
began domesticating animals.
Signs of Smallpox have been
found in Egyptian mummies,
including Ramses V, who died
in 1157 B.C. The Romans picked
up their version of it near
present day Baghdad when they
went to fight one of their many
enemies, the Parthians, in 162.
(Isn't War great?). The Roman
physician Galen reported that
those who came down with the
new disease suffered a rash that
was 'ulcerated in most cases and
totally dry.' (It is sometimes
called the Plague of Galen); and
Marcus Aurelius, one of the
'Five Good Emperors' died of
it in 180, it is thought.
-
Sidebar on this entire Marcus
Aurelius thing : During the years
I took the daily train back and forth
to Princeton, I had made myself
my own curriculum; reading matter
to stay with, study and absorb, etc.,
and one of my favorite titles of
that time was 'The Meditations of
Marcus Aurelius.' This volume, these
meditations, were written while
he was imprisoned, waiting to die;
and for their 'day' and 'age' still
read as compelling matter, and
serious thoughtfulness. (He was
also a Stoic philosopher, and it
was from that position that he
wrote these). One of the very
often-cited lines of his is 'Live
life as if you are already dead.'
That reads kind of strange, but
there's a lot of meaning there.
The actual quote is (often and
mostly mis-read) is: Think of
yourself as dead. You have lived
your life, now take what's left
and live it properly.' I much prefer
the first version, as do the mass
of mis-reading Humankind.
-
By the 15th century, Smallpox
had become 'endemic' in Europe
and Asia, meaning that most
people were probably exposed
to it at some point in their lives.
Over all, the fatality rate was a
terrifying 30 percent, but much
higher among young children,
more than 90 percent in some
places. ('Parents would commonly
wait to name their children until
after they had survived Smallpox).
Anyone who made it through
had acquired permanent
immunity though many were
left blind or badly scarred.
("This dynamic meant that every
generation or so there was a
major outbreak, as the number
of people who managed to
avoid getting infected as
children slowly rose").
Upon reflection, I realize
again how anal today's society
become, over these same disease
issues. Everything reduced to a
sort of group nomenclature, of
codewords and winks, because
we have at our disposal the
means and connections of
steering people, in ways that
never, certainly, existed a
thousand years ago, or 600,
or even 300. When today's
version began, do you recall
how 'fin' it was made out to
be to 'wash' one's hands -
there were instructions on
what nursery rhymes to recite
to your self to be sure you'd
washed long ago; how to recite
the Lord's Prayer, and two
Jail Mary's, or to say some
stupid doggerel twice. Thus
assuring the adequate amount
of time of hand-washing, and
then DO NOT touch your hands
to your mouth. Whatever it all
was. Can you imagine old Slodo
being told to got down to the
river and bath his hands for
fifteen yents of the yomo and
then return without ever touching
his toga, or his face? No fun
at all. don't think it would have
worked. In today's much more
infantile world, we have the usual
media clowns, etc, making their
announcements and smiley
sing-songs about how we
should live. I'd rather pick up
my rifle and stand by my front
door with a Tom Petty song,
'Don't Come Around Here no
More.' People are plain-out
stupid now.
-
What's even then weirder, on
this spread of this Smallpox thing,
is how the exploring Europeans
then began just dumping this
disease on all the new populations
of the people they began infringing
upon. Landing, Claiming lands,
and stealing them. Planting a stupid
flag and saying 'It's Ours!' Killing
and slaughtering, and enslaving,
inhabitants. Or, as it's nicely put
in the history books, "As they
began exploring distant lands
and interacting with the native
populations. A historian, Alfred
Crosby, coined the term 'virgin
soil epidemic,' defined as on in
which 'the populations at risk
have had no previous contact
with the diseases that strike
them and are therefore
immunologically almost
defenseless.' The first 'virgin
soil epidemic' in the Americas
began toward the of 1518. That
year someone (from Spain)
carried smallpox to Hispaniola.
This was a quarter of a century
after Columbus ran aground on
the island, and the native Taino
population had already been
much reduced. The 'speckled
monster' laid waster to those
who remained. Two friars (if
you can believe this!!) wrote
back to the King of Spain,
Charles I, "It has leased the
Our Lord to bestow a pestilence
of smallpox among the said
Indians, and it dos not cease,"
(Yes, truly, that is what Catholics
are good for). From there, the
Smallpox spread to Puerto Rico.
Within 10 years it had reached
the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan,
a development that allowed
Herman Cortes to conquer the
capital in 1521. (He's otherwise
known as Cortez the Killer).
A Spanish priest wrote : "In
many places it happened that
everyone in a house died, and,
as it was impossible to bury
the great number of dead, they
pulled down the houses over
them."
-
When I got to NYC, there was
an entire history of the old,
disease days there. Cholera,
Yellow Fever, etc. In fact,
entire wards and sections of
Manhattan and surroundings
had their own names and
reputations as Cholera
hotspots centers of the other
various ailments. Greenwich
Village itself was a crooked,
eccentric remnant of what once
was an out-the-the-country
haven to which people fled
to escape those diseases. And
many never left - either
through death or because they
just stayed there and made it
home. Eccentric, raggedy place
from Day One.
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NEXT: The Black Death
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