I had to go to the bank this morning. The lady guarding the door demanded to take my temperature from behind a clear plastic patrician. There was an aggressive stress in her voice and she stood rapidly, as though she expected me to try to force my way past their thermometer on a stick. I waved my wrist past their machine and was cleared to enter. Only then, did she seem to relax.
I was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunts house. She had invited others from outside the family, as well. For some reason, they had been told that, weeks ago, my father had contracted and fully recovered from Covid. When he and I arrived, one of my aunt's other guests, whom neither my father nor I have ever met, abruptly and rudely asked if he had tested negative yet (he had). These outsiders, who seemed perfectly comfortable around each other, retreated to another part of the house and whispered excitedly before returning, with masks donned, to stare judgmentally at us. They refused to eat at the same table as us, too. I took the message that we weren't really welcome there. It was a rather insulting experience but not a surprising one given the rampant paranoia that is spreading through our society faster than the Coronavirus. On the bright side, I did excuse myself from the dinner by calling her friends "a bunch of cunts" so I probably won't be invited back. I'll call that a win.
A customer came into my workplace and was upset with us for some reason. She bypassed the long line of people who were ahead of her, removed her mask in a fashion that probably seemed dramatic in her mind but looked awkward in reality, and loudly announced that she was sick. After proclaiming her illness, she proceeded to spin around coughing, like some kind of chain smoking ballerina. The other employees and I were unamused and so were most of the customers but I watched about a third of the people in line cower as though she was sticking a gun in their faces. One old women even made this gesture that I can only describe as fearful-jazz-hands while she screeched in terror which was kind of hilarious to witness, if I'm being honest. Most of us understood what was going on, though. The wolves of the world were learning to exploit this new panic among the people.
I have a two dozen more little stories like these but they all have the same point. The manufacture of mass panic and the normalization and promotion of cowardice is robing us of our humanity and leaving us open to exploitation by those who recognize this new weakness but I think that might be their point. When we start viewing all people as threats like the bank lady, we become blind to the threats that lurk in the background and the shadows. When we fear one another, we stop socializing and we begin to view our potential friends and allies and dangerous others. When we train ourselves to default to a state of terror and helplessness, we make ourselves the potential pray to the the "wolves" who wish to victimize the sheep one way or another.
If I may put it crudely, we need to sack the fuck up, get on with our lives, and resist anyone who asks us to live in terror because only tyrants and predators benefit from our fear. I have always believed that if one spends his or her days worried about living a long life, he or she is already dead. Those people may be very healthy, they may say that they are happy but they live with restrictions. They limit their own freedom in the name of existing for a few more years at the end of their lives and maybe it works but they had to spend their time eating nothing alfalfa or something to do it. Now, think about what happens when we make people believe that obeying authoritarian dictates are a matter of preserving their health. They comply with commands that would have made the worlds worst tyrants moist in their shorts. The fearful don't question, they won't gather, they can't organize, and they are choosing to exist in that state of dangerous weakness willingly. This is everything the most corrupt and oppressive systems of authority have ever wanted and they are ravenously seizing upon this opportunity. The only out, the only way to resist, the only way to preserve what remains of our freedom is to cast off our fears and choose to live in this world in spite of its potential dangers because cowering alone will prove deadlier than this virus ever could be.
Peace.
All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website, unsplash.com.