Do we understand Freedom?
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who believe they are free.- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
Never has the world witnessed such stunning stupidity. In the face of an exploding pandemic, the need to wear a mask has collided with America’s most sacred ideology: Freedom. Untethered, devoid of common sense, and all about me.
I live in Europe. Freedom is better understood here, thanks to minds like the German philosopher and statesman, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He taught us Freedom is meaningless absent its flipside: responsibility. We also learn from Goethe that Freedom is not absolute. It’s forever in competition with order and justice.
Like the expression, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, Europe understands there’s a price to Freedom. It can only be enjoyed by everyone if it’s not exploited by a minority of simpletons. This lesson did not come easily.
Unlike America, the European head is not so deeply buried in symbols that it can’t see the light of day. Even in semi-dictatorial Hungary, a coherent set of guidelines were put forward and followed. Nobody complained about their Freedom being robbed; instead, they appreciated the collective effort to restore it.
In Europe, there was little debate about mask-wearing. Like others in the world who live with their eyes open, we simply got on with it. This responsibility was onboarded with the same acceptance given to speed limits and traffic signals. We obeyed because we recognized that these measures are for the common good, of which we’re part.
Not in America. For many there, speaking of the common good is tantamount to communist propaganda.
Unaware of Freedom’s full meaning but convinced they own the trademark to it, many Americans feel that wearing a mask infringes on their right to be lazy unapologetic dumbasses, or LUDs. Rising to the occasion from their couch slouch, AR-15 in hand, this is the LUD’s moment in history. A time to throw-down the gauntlet and demand one’s Freedom from the oppressive face mask mandate. Tyranny must be stopped in its tracks.
Consumed by the world of hoaxes, conspiracies, fake news, and fluffernutter sandwiches, LUDs see themselves as the sentinels of Freedom. They represent the core of Trump’s infamous base. As he said in Nevada during the 2016 campaign: I love the poorly educated. To which the poorly educated clapped energetically. The bliss of ignorance recorded for all time.
So strong is the lore of the LUD that even those who know better feel the need to play along. For example, Georgia governor Brian Kemp is aware of the benefits of wearing masks. Still, to align himself politically with the president and his LUD supporters, Kemp has mandated that the mask cannot be required. To make his point, he’s doing what every American freedom fighter does: he’s suing. This time Atlanta’s black female mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is requiring face masks.
It’s a pure Trumpian big swinging dick move. A twofer for Kemp: appeasing Trump’s LUD base, and putting down a black woman. Hail Dixie!
In South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem said this week: “the mask situation with kids and with adults is very mixed research, and the science has not proven what’s effective and what isn’t.” [italics added]
I have two observations of this statement. First, when people use the word “situation,” it’s usually a sign that BS will follow. On this, Kristi doesn’t disappoint. Second, a political science graduate, Noem demonstrates her rhetorical skills in the art of lying with a straight face, and evidence that she likely failed every course involving numbers. Noem sites no sources for her claims of mixed research and unproven science, and neither does her ideological leader, Mr. Trump. Should there be a second term, rewards will be in order for demagogues of her caliber.
Too busy wooing the White House, it would seem Noem doesn’t know of Japan. Located across the ocean, way over there, and far from American shores, Japan is a country that adopted the face mask during the 1919 pandemic. One hundred years of mask-wearing habits have allowed this densely populated country, with 38% of the US’s population, to limit its COVID-19 deaths to 1,001. If Japan was performing as the US, they would have had 58,000 deaths by now, not 1,001.
Still a land of brilliant minds and bounding opportunities, it’s startling to see America as a land of losers. The science of dealing with COVID is defined by political affiliation, not biology.
Whatever happened to those innocent and eager can-doers who saved Europe?
In the century after Goethe, we saw the triumph of delusion in Europe and paid its price in millions of lives and trillions of dollars. As things went from bad to worse, hatred spread like a pandemic and Europe became a living hell. Twice in a century.
As fears mount, delusions rise. It’s America’s Chernobyl moment, as spoken by Valery Legasov’s character (in episode 5 of the HBO miniseries):
We are so focused on our search for the truth, we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it. But it is always there, whether we see it or not, whether we choose to or not. The truth doesn’t care about our needs or wants. It doesn’t care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions. It will lie in wait, for all time.
It’s daybreak America. Time to wake up and smell the coffee!
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