Plague Year Listening

I am in my 4th or 5th or 27th or perhaps 118th week of working at home due to the pandemic, and I don’t like it.  I don’t like the pandemic, of course, but I also don’t like working at home.  I don’t have the self-discipline to do it effectively, and more and more it gives me the feeling that work has completely taken over my life.  

As I work, I have been listening to some items from my decidedly non-eclectic music collection.  In general I’ve been focusing on some of the more obscure elements, like solo albums and other things that I don’t normally hear, but some more significant elements have crept in as well.

And, for no good reason, I am putting a list of what I’ve been listening to on the blog:

Huey Lewis and the News Hard at Play

Ric Ocasek This Side of Paradise

Mark Knopfler The Princess Bride

Jim Capaldi Fierce Heart

Mike Rutherford Smallcreep’s Day

Yes Big Generator

Bruce Springsteen Tunnel of Love

Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla

Tony Banks A Curious Feeling

David Gilmour David Gilmour

The Doors Morrison Hotel

Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis and the News

Pete Townshend All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

The Cars Candy-O

Genesis Duke

Robert Palmer Riptide

Eric Clapton Journeyman

Mark Knopfler Golden Heart

Steve Winwood Arc of a Diver

Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick

Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town

Pink Floyd The Division Bell

The Who Quadrophenia

The Doors The Soft Parade

Traffic Mr. Fantasy

Steve Hackett Cured

Van Halen OU812

Dire Straits On Every Street

Plague Year Hoarding

I have some observations about the current coronavirus pandemic on a scientific level, but as I am neither virologist nor epidemiologist, I should probably keep quiet.  

But I do feel that I can address a related phenomenon, the empty or nearly empty supermarket shelves that I noted in my last post.  

The empty shelves are generally attributed to hoarding; it is my theory that the hoarding is largely governed by a positive feedback relationship.  The hoarding begins with those who think that the pandemic will lead to complete societal collapse, at which point food and other consumer goods will be completely unavailable, and those with the somewhat less extreme belief that the pandemic will necessitate social isolation strict enough that people will be unable to go out to purchase consumer goods. 

This first wave of hoarders empties out various sections of the store, which creates an illusion of scarcity—the impression that there are long-term shortages.  More people then decided to hoard when they get the opportunity in order to secure themselves against these perceived shortages.  Supermarket shelves are again cleared out, which perpetuates the illusion of scarcity, prompting even more people to hoard. 

The population is, of course, finite, and the capacity to acquire and store goods is also finite, so even if everyone is eventually moved to hoard, the hoarding urge should at some point be sated.  Are we reaching that point?  Paper products are the category hardest hit by hoarding, and on my last supermarket visit there were some paper items in the paper aisle—no paper towels or toilet paper, but a few packages of tissues and paper napkins.  Perhaps the end is in sight.

Anyway, that’s my theory.  As theories go, well, it’s a theory.  And I like being able to use the phrases “positive feedback relationship” and “perpetuates the illusion of scarcity”.