It happened over the weekend. Even though big snowstorms have variously arrived from time immemorial, it is still a spectacular thing to observe. It starts slowly with little flecks but over the hours it intensifies. Eventually, the skies dump as much as eight inches of stunning snow on the ground. It transforms everything you see, from buildings to streets to trees. Everything turns from winter brown to the brightest white, as this frankly unusual thing blankets the earth.
What does mankind choose to do about it? You could do nothing, just let it melt over the coming days and weeks, and then get back to normal life. The problem fixes itself. But that’s not what transpires in New England. These are people hard-wired from way back to use every conceivable means to defeat it.
It’s a marvel to behold as the whole of society flies into action. Buzzing energy explodes everywhere.
The first thing you observe early on are big trucks with snow plows driving everywhere. Where have these things been hiding? They come from everywhere, provided both publicly and privately. The city funds companies to plow the main streets. Private contractors and volunteers do the rest. That leaves the sidewalks which become the responsibility of the homeowner or real estate company. Here the shovels and snow blowers come into play.
It’s all very hard work, with the big jobs typically undertaken by men. Women do the cars. Don’t judge me or call me names. I’m just reporting. And by the way, this is a great thing for the men in particular, since plowing snow seems to be such a heavily gendered activity. In this sense, it is unusual in these times of rampant gender dysphoria. Men need something that is their own, and certainly plowing snow is it. It’s a job for Real Men! (If you are a woman who plows snow, great; please don’t write me an angry note.)
All that aside, it’s a true marvel to behold. Within just one day, everything is done. The plows cannot get to the ice that forms beneath the snow so that is taken care of by spreading sand and salt everywhere. It’s all quite amazing how when everyone decides that the snow and ice are the enemy to be controlled and defeated, it all happens, seemingly like magic. It’s the whole community working together to master nature. No one gives it a second thought.
So ask yourself: why all this effort to fix a problem that eventually fixes itself anyway? It’s all due to the passion for carrying on life, commerce, and industry with an intense conviction that nothing from nature can be allowed to interfere with the ambitions of the human population to continue building the good society.
That’s it. That’s the whole reason. There are places to go, things to do, and people to see, and nothing can be allowed to stand in the way.
I’ve never skied but many people just adore this sport. One wonders if part of the reason is the sense of mastering the elements. We take a wild and strange phenomenon of nature and turn it into an advantage! How wonderful is that? The inconvenience becomes a blessing.
So too for hills in town where every kid knows to go for sledding. The kids can do this stuff all day, up and down the hills, tumbling recklessly in all directions and laughing uproariously when it happens. Yes, this is dangerous but that’s why kids love it.
You can even ice skate on the pond. You can build fabulous snowmen and pretend they are Parson Brown. And so on. It’s all about saying to nature: you cannot beat us.
Do you know where I’m going with this? Of course you do. This must be compared with the response to COVID, which was this new pathogen that was floating around with a well-known and medically significant impact on a small population cohort of the elderly and infirmed, the overwhelming majority of which would survive. Instead of focused protection, the entire region utterly freaked out.
Life itself was stopped in fear. There was no leaving your home, except for those who were getting essential goods to stores and doorsteps. All industry stopped and only essential commerce continued. This didn’t just happen for days or weeks but for a year or even two. And the solution finally emerged as a so-called vaccine that didn’t actually stop the problem but made oodles of cash for pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies.
It was utterly bizarre, not brave at all, not resourceful, not daring, not determined. Unlike snow days, everyone in the region just sort of gave up and said: we’ve been defeated by nature! How super weird is that? It makes no sense. These are a hearty people who deal with natural obstacles all winter every year and do an absolutely spectacular job of it. But when the terrible “invisible enemy” arrived, they closed up shop and huddled in fear.
What’s weird is that snow and ice are extremely dangerous. Auto crashes soar. People break bones falling on the ice. Just walking from here to there introduces grave danger. You have to deploy a special technique of walking to avoid breaking your neck.
Just last evening, walking very carefully in the dark in a parking lot, I suddenly found myself flat on my back. I stepped on a patch of ice that was as slick as oil. If it happened to me, it could happen to anyone. I’m fine but whew! Next time I’ll be more attentive.
Oddly, this is one of the reasons it is all so fun and exciting. The danger represents a real challenge to human ingenuity and craftiness. We are determined to overcome despite all the dangers around us, which are very real and very present.
But keep in mind: the goal of this snow mitigation is not “Zero Snow.” It is to tame it, minimize its damage, make it the least intrusive to life functioning as possible. That is the whole point of the plowing, the blowing, the digging, the scrapping, and the spreading of salt. There is no chance of making it go away completely. It has to become endemic and then finally melts. The role of human intervention is to take it on with every skill we can muster at the least possible cost.
None of this attitude was there during the COVID fiasco. There was precious little bravery in confronting the virus. Hardly anyone saw it as a challenge to overcome but rather a terror to avoid with cowardly isolation.
The real reason is that our elites lied to us on a subject about which many people are inexperienced and ignorant. Sure, they lie to us all the time in weather emergencies, but we are used to that. They always exaggerate the danger simply because they want views and clicks. We know that. But somehow that knowledge did not port over when it came to a virus. People believed the mouthpieces of the elites and wrecked social and economic functioning on order from above.
We should look at the New England response to snow days as an inspiration. These people won’t be defeated. They will turn danger into fun, inconvenience into opportunity, and make the exigencies of nature serve mankind rather than the opposite. This is the right spirit, one we must recapture and redeploy for every last emergency of whatever sort. We can manage just fine without muckety-mucks making a mess of our lives.
