Wednesday, July 15, 2020

A Sad Decline


I recently completed The Splendid and The Vile, a book by Erik Larson exploring the first year of Winston Churchill's prime ministership. He assumed the leadership in 1940, at which point Britain had already been at war with Germany for one year. With the U.S. following an isolationist policy, things did not look very hopeful for the island nation.

Despite facing fierce odds against their survival, and despite repeated and brutal air attacks by the Luftwaffe, both the population and its political leadership soldiered on, finding within themselves the character to resist despair and defeat. They truly were The Greatest Generation.

I do wonder whether that kind of national character is as much on display today as we battle Covid-19.

Ninety-three year-old Toronto Star letter-writer Syd Bosloy of Thornhill also wonders along similar lines:
I am 93 years old, but I have never seen anything like what is happening in America today. The U.S. is in a crisis. They are harbouring and ignoring those “covidiots,” who refuse to obey simple precautions such as wearing a mask. As a result, the U.S. is responsible for a quarter of all the world’s cases and deaths due to the pandemic. It’s indicative of what’s wrong with America. I believe it is because their citizens lack a sense of personal responsibility for the good of others, when you compare them with the British in London during the Second World War, for example. Is it because they have never had their country under sustained military attack or occupied during their lifetime? Are Americans satisfied with the “dog eat dog” attitude of their citizens, politicians and police?
Sadly, however, the kind of idiocy Mr. Bosly describes is not confined to the United States. We have our own special breed right at home:
A week after anti-mask groups rode the TTC without face coverings to protest against new city bylaws requiring them, the same groups are now making "exemption cards" that claim they are medically exempt from wearing face coverings.

CBC Toronto is not naming the groups, nor the people involved with them, so as to not publicize false information.

The Canadian Red Cross says the cards contain a version of the organization's emblem that is being used without permission.
Despite dire potential consequences, some are treating these fake cards as a joke:
Posts about the cards can be found on many social media platforms. In one such video, a man smiles and laughs while holding the card and saying, "Mandatory mask? Not with this."

The account that shared the video is run by a man and woman who are leading one of Toronto's anti-mask groups. It has also shared a host of debunked material and conspiracy theories in recent days.

In another online video shared by the same account, a man visits Toronto Western Hospital, where he is told by an employee he has to wear a mask to seek care. He responds that he has a medical condition, and shows the card. Later, he smiles at the camera and says "the card definitely helped."
Dave Watson is one person who isn't laughing.
"It's a load of crap," said Watson, who has cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that causes severe respiratory disease, making patients more susceptible to lung infections.

"If anyone couldn't wear one, it would be me."

Watson says that depending on the day, he is typically running at between 34 and 42 per cent lung capacity. Breathing can be tough, especially in high heat and humidity.

Still, he hasn't thought twice about wearing a mask in public.

"It makes sense to wear a mask, and for people to make these cards, it's pretty insulting," he said.

"I've done my part. The least you can do is do yours."
Increasingly, my patience wears thin with the idiots around me quite blithely endangering others. They represent some of the worst aspects of humanity and as a Canadian they make me feel deeply ashamed.

Time to start imposing severe sanctions.

2 comments:

  1. I fear what these rogue elements portend for social cohesion when we are really tested, Lorne. There were times when national emergencies drew the population together. Differences were set aside. Everyone put their shoulder in.

    This "disease atop a disease" is rooted in America's long-running culture wars. Everything becomes fodder for dissent. Medical emergencies succumb to political debates. Thugs, armed with assault rifles, occupy state houses. Others counter-protest in the name of exercising their "constitutional rights." They claim a right to ignore the welfare and safety of the many in the name of "freedom." This malevolent genie is out of the bottle and it's unclear if it can ever be forced back in.

    Is this how societies collapse? Lincoln, quoting scripture, warned that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Shortly after that the United States fell into the bloodiest war in American history, brother against brother.

    It's now apparent that the great rifts of the Civil War, some 160 years ago, never healed. Anger and resentment, hatred and paranoia, were left to simmer. Like tectonic plates, pressure builds until, eventually, they give way sometimes with catastrophic loss.

    Is it a terrible coincidence that this should be spreading now just as we are facing major challenges unlike anything we've known in our lives. The timing couldn't be worse.

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    1. That we are being put to several, related tests at the same time is, as you well know, Mound, no coincidence. It is sad that "the better angels of our nature" of which Lincoln spoke seem in short supply when we need them most.

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