Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Two Hundred Thirty Two

The election in the grand old empire is over at last. Except the counting still continues and the outcome remains in doubt, with the uncertainty of all that promising to creep into the coming days. The president fulminates about conspiracies to deny him a return to power, declaring victory and announcing that any other outcome is corrupt. He would know, I suppose, being a singularly corrupt figure.

At any rate it seems as though the aftermath of the election will linger on for some time, even after the counting is finally complete. There will be legal challenges and endless rhetoric. Perhaps violence, though there has been none yet and hopefully they will be spared that. All we can be assured is that it will continue to suck oxygen from the room, taking up what precious mental space we have to deal with all of this. Add it to the pile of all the things we are forced to consider at all times during the unrelenting cavalcade of events of this year.

No one in the empire seems to have any awareness of how infuriating it is that the state of the world, and so many lives within it, are shaped by their arcane rules and frankly bizarre politics. Any nation, including our dominions, is governed by laws that make no sense, yet continue to persist and fosters a political culture that is incomprehensible to outsiders, but no other nation has such an outsize impact upon the world. As the last four years have demonstrated, if they elect a fool, it is not only they who will be led into madness.

Our politics in the Greater Dominions are often, accurately, described as boring. There are rarely great stakes and few major differences between the various contesting parties. This certainly leads to issues – we are far too accepting of the failures of our leaders for one thing – but overall it is a good thing. It is a mark of stability and the result a general consensus, among the populace and its leaders as to the direction the Dominions need to go. There are differences, heated and loudly argued as anywhere, but in the larger picture there is much agreement.

That no longer seems the case in the grand old empire. They stand opposed, utterly despising their opposites and what they seek to do, while forced to exist in the same nation. It seems unlikely to end well in the long run.