Maleficent Obsession
Recently I was watching Amanpour & Company on PBS as Andy Slavitt talked about Covid-19 and the impact of wearing masks. He believes that if 80%-90% of people wore masks consistently, the virus would almost disappear. When he was asked why wearing masks is such a problem for people in the U.S., he said that because there is such a deep cultural value placed on individual liberties, many don’t want their lives to be inconvenienced on behalf of other people. To explore this idea further, he suggested making 2 lists: One with words such as individualism, entrepreneurship, great wealth; and the other, with things such as society, community, equality. He speculated that countries described by the 2 nd list will have fewer Covid cases because they are willing to wear masks out of concern for others. He mentioned Japan and several African countries as examples. This was a new moment of clarity for me. It is straight up evil that the value we place on individual liberties ...