Thread by @kishkitsch

The medium is the message - Marshall Mcluhan

If masks are our new medium, what is the message?

Well, as @denisrancourt points out in this video: (15 minutes in)
We like to think that our beliefs motivate our actions but our actions can also dictate what we believe.

Consider this quote in the context of masks. The content of the program - the covid narrative - was incidental. It had an effect of course, but the effect was waning - along with the death count. You could measure the story's effect on people by counting the masks around you.

Before our town's mandate, "compliance" was low. Now, everyone that came to my garage sale yesterday wore one. One woman asked to use my washroom but worried I may not be comfortable because of covid. I said I don't care about that. She waved her hand and said, ugh.. me neither.

So there it is. We become what we behold. The medium of masks are the message. For now, they serve to indicate and separate, in a binary way, the believers from the non-believers. It is binary, there is no space for questioning or doubting.

In the long run, what message will masks have? We have been told that masks are here to stay. It's the new normal - at least until the new, NEW normal comes along: the vaccine.

Have we forgotten that vaccines, as wonderful as they may be, are a product to be sold?

Masks are a clever primer for vaccination status.
We won't be able to simply claim a health condition. There will be no room for fence sitters.

Mcluhan believed that each new medium is an extension of ourselves. In this sense, I suppose masks are an extension of our fears. We fear not fitting in almost as much as death. Relying on the group helped us to survive as a species.

The narrative is over. You can see it when people sanatize and mask up before dining out. If people truly believed in a deadly pandemic that threatens us all, they wouldn't be going out for dinner.

Us nonconformist troublemakers #SayNoToMasks and yes to living.