What happened to that Distancing?

Alright, I can't help it, yet another "Corona" post

I sometimes like to look at people as an outsider. Look at their rules and games, the way they behave and interact with one another. Like a fly on the wall that looks at me when I am eating my lunch. You can learn a lot when doing this, not just about other people, but also about yourself.

So in Amsterdam I just noticed some things regarding to Corona rules. Of course it's nothing new or probably not something you didn't encounter yourself yet. But I just felt like documenting it a bit.

The city greets everyone with a 1.5 meter social distancing request. The interesting thing about exploring this topic are all the little and big contradictions one discovers while looking around. People were not social distancing - or at best they were very loosely following these guidelines (or better: demands as there might be social consequences). This displays to me very beautifully the essence of human behavior: we aren't very good at following rules (although there is probably a cultural bias here).

When I was visiting, the city celebrated LGBTQ week(?) which apparently many people used for partying and gathering together. People dancing on the streets, hugging, kissing... it felt normal, it felt good. It felt like society was going back to pre-corona times (but will it ever?; not that I am saying that this would just all be good)

The most dramatic display was in the city center: Thousands of people stacked together, with some wearing masks, and all not following the 1.5 meter distancing. But apparently people needed to do this. And events like this, I guess, just aren't the same when you can't touch (or avoid) the people around you.