I was reading the latest issue of Psychology Today recently and came across an article about a man who haphazardly fell into ultramarathon running. For those of you who don't know, an ultramarathon is a race anywhere from about 30-100 miles long, and, yes, you run it. A podiatrist who ran two miles "to keep in shape" gradually found himself training for marathons and then graduated into runs lasting from 10 PM to 6 AM in preparation for hundred-mile races. 

 So in my discussion group this past Thursday, we talked about whether or not The Plague was about science trying to overcome an invincible enemy, specifically in this context, the plague.  Looking at this time period and the status of science, what could they have possibly done?  Extending it to even modern times, should a super-virus/bacteria appear, how would science attempt to stop it?  One could even argue that science is the cause of pandemics such as this.  By constantly producing anti-bacterial soaps and other substances made to kill off most (but not all) bacteria, those who survive become resistant to that specific type of anti-bacterial and will reproduce to create a new population immune to that.

Thursday’s conversation made me think in depth about inevitability. We talked about whether or not, with a greater understanding of science and medicine, the rats could have been exterminated before they infected the entire population. Even if the appropriate scientific measures had been taken, the people of Oran seem so enraptured by their monotonous lives that they most likely would not have reacted quickly enough to stop the spread.

 "Query: How contrive not to waste one's time? Answer: by being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one's days on an uneasy chair in a dentist's waiting room...by lining up at the box office theaters and then not buying a seat and so forth.." The Plague