Deep snow

[greenstorm]

This morning I am thinking about how covid emphasizes and intensifies close connections that people already have, and de-emphasizes and prevents new connections and connections outside our existing groups.

I've heard about this in the poly community where primary or live-in relationships tend to be the ones to survive when contacts need to be cut or bubbles reduced. I see this in the way recommendations assume and privilege contacts within a traditional nuclear family.

Today I'm thinking about how this tendency applies to the food system. More people are growing their own food, both raising meat and gardening. Folks who already had ties with a farm when all this began, they seem to have retained and strengthened their access to CSAs etc. Folks who have extra garden produce give it to people through their existing connections.

But especially, folks raising meat have been unable to get abattoir dates. This means a lot more home slaughter, which means no ability to sell meat. So this precious resource, food, flows through friend connections and neighbour connections. Folks without those connections go without.

Problem is, this sort of situation always privileges folks with more connections: the popular people do well, new folks or people who for some reason can't or don't do the social dance as well get less. I hate that system. I hate when it's a medical GoFundMe, I hate when it's food, I hate when anything folks need are given based on popularity.

Conversely I love free bins, take-one-leave-one sites, the reuse shed at dumps up here where folks leave things that are still good, central food exchange locations. Most of those are gone now.

I had a lot of social capital in the city. I have much, much less out here. Even when I was receiving lots through my social networks, though, this system has always felt burningly unfair. I realize this is 12-year-old me speaking, the part of me that was still burning bright against unfairness n the world. I'm a lot more beat down now.

I still don't like it.

Comments

[cz_unit]

Interesting point on the poly bit: I'm lucky in that my sweetie of many years is pretty stable and safe relationship wise so we can all be in a pod. But yes, other relationships are down now and probably will be for awhile.

Will be interesting to see what happens once things open up. Probably a massive rave/orgy or something.

[greenstorm]

My understanding is that 40% of folks will have a huge orgy, and the other 60% will be too anxious around strangers to leave their homes.

Percentages are a rough guess, of course.

social capital

[donnaidh_sidhe]

I'm still coming to grips with how much of the social capital I had was directly related to being useful to other people. People didn't like me; they liked what I could do for them. I feel like all of the resources I poured into the communities I thought I was part of would eventually come back around when needed, because that's how community is supposed to work -- people remember you and reach out. Ha.

This hurts so much.