To help me craft a worldview-changing story, in the forthcoming Much Ado About Corona novel, I was reading an article by editor Rachelle Ramirez, called Secrets of the Worldview Genre.

In every well-crafted plot, she explains, the lead character or characters go through a shift in values. A common value shift is in regards to meaning or purpose.

Now, I initially assumed such a value shift would have “meaning” on one end and “meaninglessness” on the other. Indeed, the article uses these two extremes, with “cognitive dissonance” falling in between.

But Ramirez takes it a level deeper. There is actually something worse than meaninglessness, she writes. And she couldn’t have worded it better, considering the climate we live in today.

What’s worse than meaninglessness? “Meaninglessness masked as meaning.”

Is that not what we are faced with today?

Meaningless PCR tests treated like gold-standard tools of diagnosis.

Useless masks being heralded as a thin shield between us and mass extinction.

Pointless social distancing praised as an ultimate act of compassion.

Ineffective and harmful lockdowns being touted as the solution to non-existent overcrowding in hospitals.

How to reverse this? Fill your life with meaningful thoughts, acts and feelings. Don’t leave a void of pointlessness that can be filled with “meaningless masked as meaning.”