Klaus Brinkbäumer was most recently editor-in-chief of “Spiegel” and now works as an author for “Die Zeit”, among others. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Brinkbaeumer. In his weekly column “Spiegelstrich” he will write a coronavirus diary over the coming weeks with brief observations from everyday life and reflections on the corona crisis.
– We humans, says the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, have trouble understanding a pandemic because we cannot grasp exponential growth; we would see what is there and not what will be there. So let’s imagine a lake attacked by a deadly alga that doubles itself every day: on the penultimate day, half the lake shimmers intact in the evening light. Shall we go swimming tomorrow?
– There are still five days until D-Day, as the day in New York is called when there won’t be enough beds and ventilators. Doubling: every three days.
– Corona language: Covidiotes. Covidivorce. Allegedly there will be more babies and more divorces after the quarantine months.
– Angela Merkel does not stage herself, just stands there and explains to the Germans why Easter has to be different this year.
In the midst of the pandemic, Donald Trump says, “I’m number 1 on Facebook.” His scientists advise the nation to wear masks, he says, “Oh, well, I won’t wear one.” Kahneman says: “The most important thing is honest, clear messages . “
– Catch-22: The free society has to debate what works and what doesn’t – the free society will only be saved if we trust experts, develop a strategy and have the discipline to collectively stick to the strategy.
– Jakob Augstein writes: “The most glaring experience of this crisis is how extremely susceptible so many people are to group think! And journalists too. That’s scary! ”I rarely like loud adjectives, but: more blatant than the loneliness of the dying? More blatant than the grief of the children who can no longer see their parents?
– What I had forgotten: the shame of just being a journalist in crisis areas; while doctors – and not just them – put their lives down to make a difference.
– Social media are now social. That the trim training with the sailing world champions and the dance class of the American Ballet Theater are live and that Igor Levit plays there for us, connects us.
– How banal, now: the sports calendar gave me support for 45 years. Immovable: Olympic Summers. It’s April, so ice hockey play-offs. I wouldn’t have counted FC St. Pauli among the things that can end in life.
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– Will it actually be possible to make up for the feelings when this is all over: Consolation? Grief Can you celebrate goodbyes afterwards?
– Quiet New York outside. You can hear individual cars in New York as if it were Münster-Hiltrup. The Empire State Building glows casually cruelly at 9 p.m.: blood red. At 7 p.m. the city claps for its heroines.
The wife spends hours shopping for groceries at “Whole Foods” via smartphone, first filling the shopping cart with what is still available, only to find out in the last step, completing the order, that the delivery date is due Was free at the beginning of the process, is now taken. It works on the fifth day.
– What a job: delivering groceries to Manhattan’s skyscrapers these days.
– The parents fail on Skype. Digital picture frames save us: I upload the photos on this side of the sea, the grandson laughs at the grandparents from the dresser.
– April 2, 2020: the day when the son releases my hand and walks. Quarantined not in Central Park, but on the 30th floor, but who cares? “Now he will discover this world”, writes my sister from Montpellier. What kind of world? ‘
– Old people like him, says Kahneman, 86, will accompany this crisis until the end of their lives. Society and humanity will survive them.
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