Blog followers have come to learn that I showcase society’s shortcomings here. If I tempt readers into challenging evolving norms, then there’s value.
In spite of modern civilization undergoing stress tests in 2020, some folks are handling challenges better than others. I’ve always been sociologically curious. Undergraduate option courses were spent investigating the human mind and formations of societies. Course work included psychology, sociology and anthropology. My enthusiasm for the subject matter was never as pronounced as my phenomenal professor of anthropology but my intrigue lingers on. Now, why is it than some folks cope better than others?
The mind requires “malleability”. It needs to be uncompromising at times and compromising at others. It requires resourcefulness based on experience and training in order to know when to exert and when to withdraw. Hyper sensitivity is a problem and can lead to obsessive compulsive behaviour. What better environment to observe obsessive compulsive disorder than in the midst of a pandemic. There is common sense, government dictums, and cooperative execution with a predisposed mind. We should be empathetic while educational helping youth along in the context of social policy in flux because they don’t have experience yet they possess acute self interest.
As we conduct our daily lives, we do so from the standpoint of expectations and needs. Now we also throw in Covid-19 protocols. There’s something eerily deflating to the ego about wearing a mask which is obviously a triggering variable in some of these anti-masker types. Despite the inconvenience and social estrangement associated with wearing a mask, in a mysterious kind of way, I actually revel in witnessing people expressing inherent vulnerability and thoughtfulness toward others by donning a mask.
As I go through every day during this pandemic, I think to myself….there’s something larger going on here that nobody can comprehend but identifying with meaning would be repugnant in the context of life loss. So instead while empathizing with others more directly affected, I redirect time toward hobbies while reading excerpts from scholars in the humanities like Allen Liska -“Perspectives on Deviance”.