The Mask

So, this isn't another chapter in my novel (though I've started the next one for those who are waiting and still anticipate a release date before the end of the month), but an attempt to just write more in general.  I don't know that I'm going to develop any theme for this blog yet - outside of the novel - but what are most blogs if not random thoughts generated by one individual to be read by three other people before the whole concept is abandoned?

Today I'm asking why people refuse to wear a mask during the most pervasive pandemic since the Spanish Flu.  I know the ostensible reason: it's a violation of individual rights that Americans hold so dear.  The fear is that if we give into this one thing for the government, the slope will become ever more slippery.  

The problem with that argument is that we've already yielded our specific individual rights for a collective society that functions relatively well.  You can't simply speed through select traffic lights of your choice all the while screaming "Don't tread on me!" out the stuck window of your 4Runner.  Only the most hardcore libertarian would make that argument (and I've heard them do so). 

That's also a massive problem I have with extremist philosophies (of which libertarianism is one, as is, even though I lean relatively far left, communism).  While it's good to identify how things may devolve if we don't keep our eye on the ball, it's a big stretch to assume that as soon as you're required to put on a mask, we'll time warp back to 1984.

So, why do people fight it?  Fear.  Not of their rights but of an invisible disease over which we have no control.  If it's labeled a hoax or overblown or a conspiracy, people have a greater sense of control - something with intelligence is pulling the strings, so it can be solved and defeated.  It allows people to ignore the truth of what's happening in the world right now and taps them into the sense that they - and they alone - "really know what's going on, not like the other sheeple."

The other tenuous argument I hear about this is that if people choose not to wear a mask, they should stay home, because they have the right to do so without infringing on the liberties of others. I'd flip the argument though.  A mask protects other people, not you, so you're being a selfish prick not paying attention to the well-being of others in your freedom-loving society if you don't wear a mask, so shouldn't you have the right to stay home if you don't want to wear a mask.

The bitter irony here is that, according to well-established science, if we'd all mildly restricted our liberty for about 8 weeks, this wouldn't be a debate now.  We may still need to wear masks, but we also still need to wear pants, so I'm not really sure what the logical contention is.  It's a small price to pay to literally save the world (and I don't even mean the death toll, I mean the societal costs that add up during times of massive uncertainty and leads to small fractures in our normal routines).  If you're one of the idiots that questions the "well-established science" and is about to deep state me with some mindblowing argument from a sibling blog as prestigious as this one, well, then I ask - at what point will you ever change your mind?  Your news sources likely just reinforce your own thinking, which isn't a healthy way to live.  Fox News tells you all the Cheetoh diet is healthy?  You may like hearing it, but it'll kill you way quicker than that vaccine you refuse to get.  A little skepticism and a healthy counter-argument are good for the soul and the intellect.

I was skeptical at first, too.  It's no secret the press likes to make mountains out of molehills and this looked like other localized diseases where we've been warned to batten down the hatches but that turned out to be all for naught.  But at some point the evidence became obvious.  And, at some point, you have to believe someone.  Or you don't.  But if you don't, you'll just wind up being some rambling redneck, getting drunk in your garage lamenting the good ol' days when you only declared bankruptcy every 14 years instead of every 7.

So, think of what would've happened if we all just would've followed medically approved advice for a brief period of time rather than acting like spoiled children with loaded assault rifles - we would've had a recovery like Europe - scary and isolating for 6-8 weeks but then a summer where we could feel more confident about the economy and with some further minimal (and, yes, I'll admit) state-sanctioned prophylactics we'd be able to live relatively normal lives until a vaccine's available.  

Instead, we still insist on our emphatic right to die (or, realistically, let someone else die without realizing that "someone" could be ourselves, but we're smarter and more invincible than that, right, Nabokov?) and inflict more self-harm on our nation than a horny teenager with a razor blade stuffed in his right hand.