Preface:
This post has nothing to do with whether or not there is validity in fear for contracting the disease. It is namely notes on my own observations and experiences that I am sharing.
It appears to me there has been a shift in the narrative surrounding the measures put in place to prevent further spreading of the virus. Much of the public is going on a peculiar power trip that I do not completely understand. At the start of the outbreak, these measures seemed to be an outstanding sentiment to the compassionate side of capitalism and the American people. A side that is often neglected. As a nation, a collective decision was made to cut into our profit margin, our pockets, and our comfort to prioritize minimizing the death count as much as possible. The intention was ensuring the survival of those most susceptible to the disease despite the economic ramifications. You cannot make the decision to cut into your profit margin if it doesn’t exist and, arguably, a decision made from the context of the effect on profit is capitalist in context.
This appears to no longer be the case. Now it seems there are members of the general public going on peculiar power-trips; they are displaying behaviors that are manipulative, tyrannical, or otherwise to express a certain dominance over the behavior of others. “I can make someone act a certain way.” “Wear a mask, or else!” The intention does not seem to be one of self interest or the interest of others, otherwise their collective voice would say, “Stay away from me” or “stay away from others” or something to that effect. These collective voices could just be cabin fever delusions in my head but I don’t think so.
It is worth noting that every state does not have the same cost of living or the same minimum wage. States like New York and California are undoubtedly higher. 600 USD a week is almost a 20 USD per hour job after taxes. This is a lot of money, a lot more money than some of us ever made and a lot more comfortably as well, at least in context to labor efficiency and not quality of life. The cognitive dissonance of being anti-government or anti-establishment while depending on it for welfare is not something we should ignore in ourselves. We should seek to minimize intentions of tanking the economy to maintain a psuedo-welfare state, it is a slippery slope.
We can act towards the benefit of others and ourselves without living in a constant state of fear. It seems to me that there are some members of the general public who are rejoicing in the fact that the laws/rules/considerations in place can be interpreted so everyone else has to live in the same state of fear they choose to live their whole lives in. That being said, as with all biological systems, given enough time the best models for behavior will eventually present themselves and become the predominant way the members of said system conduct themselves. There will be a cultural impact and with patience and an open mind we will all find ourselves in a better world at the end of this series of events.
On a related tangent, Grant Sanderson made the following video based on a post by Nicky Case which can be found at https://ncase.me/contact-tracing/. It explores an elegant solution into contact tracing that does not infringe on privacy and I wanted to draw attention to it. It is a good watch.