The final debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a few days ago. I watched that and taped the Eagles and Giants football game. As we know the debate and after debate commentary kept us up later than usual. I checked my phone before bed and saw that the Eagles had won. When I am taping the Eagles during a Sunday afternoon game during a normal season, I always went to great lengths to make sure that I didn’t have a glimpse of the score. I was watching the taped version on the same day not knowing what the final score would be.
If I taped the game and didn’t have an opportunity to see it, but knew the score, I would never watch it after the fact. I was not interested in seeing “old news” about the game.
But something different happened with the Eagles and Giants game that was on at the same time as the debate. I knew the final score and really enjoyed watching the taped version the day after. As I sat there, I thought that this was really crazy. What was different?
What was different is it is during the Pandemic. My soul has yearned for closure, for knowing an end date to the virus and the illness and death score count. I wanted to watch the whole game to see how it would end even knowing the final score. I wanted to see it end in “real” taped time. Closure dominates not only my psyche and soul. It also dominates the lives of most of the world.
I came up with an idea of how to get closure on the Pandemic as a result of this desire for closure. The pressure now is on the first responders, essential workers, health care workers, and business owners.
They are under enormous misplaced pressure caused by the people who are not following the CDC guidelines. This could be of a lack of awareness of the true deadly nature of the disease, a desire for their personal freedom, or just an immature or irresponsible way to go through the Pandemic with no pressure on them.
One of the things that I learned in teaching Ethics and working with kids for 38 years is that young people believe that “peer pressure” are the best two words in the English language in dealing with their parents when they get into trouble.. If they get drunk or do something wrong, the first two words out of their mouths are “peer pressure” made me do it. I would be quick to add that some parents will repeat the words to authorities such as the police or school administrators in their defense. Kids will go on to say, “Nobody pressures us. We drink because we want to.”
I am talking about a different kind of “peer pressure” where there is much more on the line. That different peer pressure is saving 150,000 lives by following the CDC guidelines.
The Administration claims that there is nothing that they can do to enforce “mask wearing”.
What if there was a national law that everyone had to wear a mask, do social distancing, only gathering in small groups, and good hand washing? The mask wearing and social distancing and small groups are the ones that could be monitored or controlled. Hand washing not so much!
In exchange for doing this, we will open everything up. We will still have the “my freedom or my death” complaints, but If I wanted to finally be let out, albeit with some limits, that would be a deal that I might take. You have to know kids to agree with this. They may say that peer pressure doesn’t affect them, but quid pro quo and transactional relationships do as well as being seen as cool.
A national plan will not work. The issue of accountability overwhelms people because of the large numbers. A national plan to not have a national plan but a local community plan would work. The plan needs to be broken down into smaller entities. Joe Biden has alluded to this when he is asked about accountability with his national plan. He indicated that he would involve governors, mayors, or other local authorities in obeying the law. Not wearing a mask would be equal to having a “loser” label”placed on the forehead of a person..
The pressure would be placed on those who won’t obey the law infringing on others freedom. “That wouldn’t work”, you say. “You are right!” An additional thing is needed!
Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point, makes the point that you need a critical mass of people thinking the same way and feeling the pressure to be a part of right thinking. It is how group dynamics work. He uses many examples to explain this. We can look at the fashion industry and how styles change from not cool to cool where everyone wants a particular stye.
Remember the Care Bears Christmas toy. It was very hard to find when kids were clamoring for them. The bears became cool. During the Harry Potter series, people stood in line to get a book. Fashion styles come back because they move to a tipping point of being cool again. Think of high-top converse sneakers that I wore as a kid. They are back! When I was a faculty chaperone at a school dance, I watched almost every girl who entered wear a black dress. That was in!
Word of mouth is the compelling approach to reach a tipping point for anything. We would depend on that to empower the new law.
We haven’t reached a tipping point for the CDC guidelines. That is at the heart of the issue.
I am also depending on a human being’s desire to give a little and get a lot. Give a little such as obeying CDC guidelines and you will get a lot such as the freedom you want and opening the economy. But everybody has to be in. One or two could ruin it for the rest. Appealing to the better angels of folks to reduce the number of cases of those ill with the virus or dead from the virus hasn’t worked. I wish it did, but it hasn’t. Let’s do something different because it better reflects how human nature really works. I am also hoping that the desire or pressure for closure kicks in as well. I want those who won’t adhere to the new approach to suffer from overwhelming virus fatigue to move to adhering to the guidelines.because of another piece of human nature. We choose pleasure over pain in whatever form it takes. For better or worse, it is how we are!
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