Since 2020
I’ve been pondering this question for the last couple of years, as it became more and more apparent that COVID wasn’t here to come and go. Like many others at the start of the pandemic, I was laid off at the start of it and found myself without a reliable source of income. Fortunately I had a small nest egg saved up that allowed me to live close to the quality of life I was used to, while not having to sacrifice a lot, although it wasn’t lost on me how hard it was for many others which made grateful. So, with no major drop in quality of life, and a lot of extra free time as I didn’t find a job until the fall, I got back into my insular hobbies reading and writing. I filled my journal those first few months with my observations as to how life had changed since the start of the pandemic.
Without getting into political and staying partisan, the notion of wearing a mask or not was quickly politicized in the early days of the pandemic. All one could find online at that time were articles saying how well masks worked at blocking coronavirus, or the latter, comparing their effectiveness to using toilet paper to block farts. Having some social anxiety I started wearing a mask at the supermarket and in public settings mainly as a way to not find myself gawked at and ostracized in the same manner as those that didn’t wish to mask. What I found as I continued to leave my house and go about in society was that there was this massive tilt in 99.99% of humans and their ability to trust one another. While I already feel humans are a distrusting lot by nature, it felt that this distrust was largely increased as a result of hysteria surrounding coronavirus, and that in essence people are living in a state of fear against one another because of the possibility of transmitting this disease. I also have noticed with this massive increase in distrust of one another, it’s ultimately effected how well we communicate individually and as a species.
Again, while staying partisan, going into the early winter of 2020 it was an election year for the US. So, in typical American propaganda fashion, all issues facing the people of the nation were immediately polarized as such that a person has to feel like they’re either picking between two options, ones bad, the others worse. During times of upheaval and trauma these divisions weren’t what was needed, but rather unity and care for their fellow human.
Last year felt more of the same, if not becoming increasingly apparent peoples lack of interest in communicating at all, if I’m being honest. This year feels even more exasperated, and now I find myself wondering if this is the state of humanity until we dive ourselves off a cliff, or if we already have?
This is my first post so please feel free to message or leave a comment about your feelings since the start of the pandemic. Thank you!