A TON of reasons to follow masking, physical distancing, & safety protocols but one that's often overlooked (imo) is that it helps prevent shaming the sick if an outbreak occurs.
As w/ most things, there are multiple levels to Covid safety: preventing spread, honoring govt guidelines, seeking common good over personal preference, etc.
But there's also a Q of how to maintain morale & unity of group in face of external threat.
One of surest ways to destroy the unity of your org is giving in to human temptation to find someone to blame when bad things happen. Find the spreader & pin everything on him or her.
When safety protocols are left to personal choice, sickness becomes associated w/ personal choice, increasing shame associated w/ it. In this scenario, contact tracing becomes an exercise in assigning guilt rather than simply stopping spread.
ISTM that personal guilt & shame associated w/ being a spreader will increase when individuals are given choice about safety protocols. Enforcing uniform expectations may actually protect individuals from community turning on them if/when they contract virus.
Obviously, there's potential for community policies to become legalistic & be used to shame individuals into compliance. I get that. But what I'm suggesting is stakes are much lower in this situation.
If you're a leader of an org like a church or school, please consider that leaving safety protocols up to individual choice as a way to maintain unity in this moment may actually be a greater risk to long-term unity.
This sends message that sickness is an individual or private matter, increasing the likelihood of blame, anger, & shame when someone eventually gets sick & introduces it into the community.
W/ uniform protocols, however, fighting viral spread is positioned as a group effort. Insofar as everyone is doing best to follow them & people *still* get sick, the virus becomes the enemy rather than fellow community members.
(PS- If this doesn't make sense to you, see: Lice outbreaks & protocols in schools & camps.
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I’m particularly interested in understanding this conclusion about the cross & whether I’m reading it correctly
Does this equate to “the cross was the unfair scapegoating of Christ on which we cast our own sins to avoid responsibility so the lesson is take responsibility for yourself”? If so… it explains a lot
I rarely QT for purposes of correction but this is a good example of what I was trying to identify in threads earlier this week: B/c Vance inaccurately defines the problems families face, he offers solutions that make no sense
1. Most people would naturally pick family to care for their kids if they can. Needing to use non-familial childcare means that they've most likely already tried that option. Grandma & grandpa may not live nearby or have the ability or desire to care for grandkids.
2. Struggling kinship networks go hand in hand w/ larger social fragmentation. Not everybody can trust their extended family or is on good terms with them. We have this vision of sprawling support networks but that might be more of a dream than reality.
Look, you can turn a blind eye to the predation of women, rally behind a man know for sexual debauchery, & then act shocked at women who don’t marry men & have kids.
If you promote a sexual economy where men are free to do whatever they want w/ little to no accountability, the only way women can have even a measure of safety is by not partnering w/ them in things that require deep trust & commitment
Women’s ability to partner w/ men is directly related to how the community around them holds men accountable. Want more marriages & families? Punish sexual predation & call out misogyny
The weekend’s events reminded me of this graf from @WestLondonMan. When we disagree w/ or dislike someone, we have 4 options:
1) kill them 2) create structures to control them 3) make life difficult so they leave 4) engage in politics
More to the point, if you’re not doing the work of politics as a means of actively seeking reconciliation w/ your neighbor, you’re doing one of the other three. Our options are good faith engagement thru shared process or coercion & violence.
That’s why the loss of shared norms & rise of authoritarian rhetoric over the last few years has been so dangerous. It’s not about tone or politeness. Respectful political engagement & just dealing are the only means we have to avoid violence.
Bedford (pop. 3200) was home to a National Guard unit serving in Company A in 1st Battalion in 116th Infantry Regiment of 29th Infantry Division. Of the 35 soldiers from Bedford, 19 were killed on Omaha Beach. Another 4 “Bedford Boys” would die before the end of the campaign
Bedford suffered the greatest proportion of losses of any town in the US that day. Everyone knew someone. Everyone lost someone. A little, quiet town in rural VA decimated by the events on a faraway continent & the actions of evil men.
This is beautiful & reminds me that I've had an essay brewing for a couple years about link btwn male loneliness/depression & cultures that prioritize male comfort & privilege.
TL;DR: Excusing men of their responsibilities to women & children robs them of purpose & the very ties that bind them to community.
The shape of modern Western life is already deeply individualistic so loneliness is a constant threat. But there's a sense in which men are *more* at risk of falling thru gaps b/c male embodiment does not naturally force a man to be bound to others in way female embodiment does.