We’re all in this together. Stay home. Stay safe. We’ll get through this. It’s our new normal.
These words have been repeated so many times, you’d think they’re used for selling the latest superfood.
They’re not selling a superfood, but is it possible they’re trying to sell us something?
That’s the introduction to an essay by concerned citizen and personal trainer Tom Nikkola, titled “What if we’ve all been primed?”
“Priming” is a controversial and once-popular theory, espoused by certain psychologists, suggesting that people can be influenced to change their beliefs and behaviors, unconsciously, when they hear messages repeated over and over. Mr. Nikkola is concerned that we are all being ‘primed’ during the COVID pandemic to accept a very different kind of future, without really knowing it’s happening to us.
He writes about the repetitious messages we’re now hearing in the media.
Consider this statement: We’re all in this together.
If you hear this over and over, and unconsciously believe it, then it means those who don’t follow the conventional recommendations aren’t in this with you. They’re outsiders. They are easy to target and hate and slander. It feels okay to treat them as outsiders because people believe they have the support of their pack to do so.
I beg to disagree. Actually, “We’re all in this together” means “We’re all in this together.” It means there are no “outsiders.” It means we are dependent upon the actions of everyone, and everyone is dependent upon our actions.
It means there is no ‘us’ and ’them.’ There’s only ‘us.’
Although Mr. Nikkola, and many others, may find the idea that “we’re all in this together” to be somehow threatening, it’s not a new idea. It’s found in, or implied by, sacred writings from every culture. It’s suggested, for example, by a well-known and oft-quoted teaching:
But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…
It’s expected that we will feel uncomfortable in a time of crisis. We get upset when the routine changes, and we suddenly can’t spend Friday night at the bar with our good buddies, the way we’ve always done. It’s tempting to look for someone to blame. Perhaps we can blame the people who are telling is, “We’re all in the is together”?
Mr. Nikkola continues:
Or take this one: Stay home. Stay safe.
This implies that by staying home, you’re doing something that helps protect people. To not stay home then, would mean putting others at risk. It sets the stage for people to easily buy into the idea that if you don’t stay home, you’re selfish.
There’s nothing to prove this statement is accurate. Recent data says the opposite: 66% of hospitalizations in New York are from people sheltering in place.
This is an interesting New York statistic, and is apparently accurate. It suggests that, if you become infected with a coronavirus when you are shopping at the grocery store, and you then go home and stay there for a few days, your whole family is likely to come down with COVID.
That is to say, staying in an enclosed space, near someone who’s infected, is highly dangerous. It’s actually safer to be working at a spacious Walmart, stocking shelves, than sitting at home in an enclosed space, sharing meals and breathing recycled air. If you don’t have a job stocking at Walmart, or tending patients at the hospital, then you’re probably going to be ‘sheltering at home’ most of the time. Especially if you and your spouse are retired, and feeling especially vulnerable.
Knowing what little we do about the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it would seem implausible for a person to contract a virus while ‘staying at home’, unless a family member contracts the virus outside the house and brings it into the home. And because so many of us are claiming to be ‘mainly’ sheltering at home, the data might suggest that ‘sheltering at home’ is dangerous. Which I believe makes perfect sense. A safer choice is to go camping in the wilderness and live off the land, in fresh air, far from any other human being. Very few of us, however, see that option as feasible.
And finally, what about this? A new normal.
What a perfect phrase to prime you to accept a life that’s different from the life we lived up until 2020. If you believe whatever we’re told to do next is the “new normal” after hearing that phrase a thousand times, you’ll be less likely to question whatever that suggested normal might be.
Well, we’d have to begin by assuming there’s such a thing as ’normal’ in the first place. Except there are 6 billion versions of normal.
‘Normal’ for Bill Gates is not ‘normal’ for Bill Hudson. Once upon a time, ’normal’ for me was to eat breakfast and then head to my signpainting shop, to breathe low-level toxic fumes for hours at a time. At another time, ’normal’ was working as a carpenter, doing house remodeling. At another time, ’normal’ was working as a theatrical set designer, or as a sculptor, or as a recreation leader for low-income children and teens. Then there was another period of ‘normal’ — going through a difficult divorce, and being legally forbidden from living in my own home.
Right now, ’normal’ is pretty normal, for me. My everyday life has, thus far, been only mildly impacted by COVID… but many of my friends have been greatly affected.
’Normal’ also includes a world outside myself… a world where my government drops bombs on innocent people, for some unfathomable reason. A world where black men are shot and killed for the sin of walking in someone’s neighborhood. A world where millions of people are refugees from terrible violence.
A world where a group of smart, inexperienced moms can start a charter school in Pagosa Springs.
I’m personally looking forward to a ’new normal’. It’s coming anyway… as it always has… so I see little reason to be afraid. Some things will get better. Some things will get worse. It’s always a trade-off.
And anyway, nothing we can do will stop the overall transition, whether it’s happening accidentally or was a carefully planned scheme by powerful interests. Meanwhile, we are able to play a small role in the changes happening in our small town. That possibility keeps me hopeful.
I’m not sure if Johnny Cash actually said this. Maybe he did.
