How many masks do you wear?

[Tenderlysharp 33]

How many masks do you wear?

I chose to present and ponder this topic as a Metaphysical and Epistemologcal exploration of identity.  

This thread is not so much to argue the benefits and safety of the mask.  Another thread seems to do a thorough job in favor of the mask: https://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?/topic/34048-rebloggedit-is-not-self-interest-to-take-illness-lightly/&tab=comments#comment-368272

I wear the mask every day, I had Covid in February, never been more sick in my life... I definitely don’t want my three grandmothers in their 90’s to die from it, and I miss hugging them terribly.  I've been seriously trying to figure out how I might be able to quarantine for two weeks just to have the privilege of being in the same room with each of them.  

You can submit to the mask and still hate it and still speak out against how dehumanizing it can be.  As well as give careful attention to the ways opportunistic power struggle groups seize upon fear.    

The Chinese Congress spent $2 Billion for covid in the U.S.  That is $40M in each state… Money from China is slave labor money.  The money seems to be spent on social media ad campaigns promoting their agenda. You can spot the underlying theme in a deluge of memes that try to alienate, belittle, polarize, dehumanize, take for granted, and intellectually cripple America for respecting freedom and success.

If you are faceless, what identity do you have?

[MisterSwig 157]

7 hours ago, Tenderlysharp said:

How many masks do you wear?

Just the one when it's required to enter a store or something.

7 hours ago, Tenderlysharp said:

If you are faceless, what identity do you have?

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by MisterSwig

[Easy Truth 76]

8 hours ago, Tenderlysharp said:

If you are faceless, what identity do you have?

Faceless? As in selfless? or Faceless like: no eyes, nose, mouth etc.

In both cases you're dead. Dead is your identity.

[dream_weaver 565]

Faceless. As in one's mouth and nose obscured by a mask (as has been typically been observed.)

The opportunity to express one's self to others still transcends this protocol. At this stage, our eyes and ears are not obscured.

My daughter and her husband expressed the fact that they had likely contracted CoViD-19. The symptoms, thus far, have been relatively mild. She, being in the nursing field, indicated that her two boys were to develop their immunity to CoViD-19 over the Christmas holiday—should they contract it— changing the usual course of the last 15 years of our historical tradition of having gotten together for this holiday season.

I respect her decision, and conversely, she respects mine.

 

[whYNOT 133]

What metaphysics? Nobody is in full contact with reality (poorly substituted by the pallid, rehashed 'reality' from TV and our e-devices), and what epistemology, anyway, where little rationality could be sustained in this non-real, under-active dream state? And what "identity", one's human, physical self-identity and 'other'-identity, that distinguishes one from the crowd - when individuality is hidden behind a face covering, you can't hardly recognize an acquaintance, struggle to hear their muffled voice and are not permitted to touch each other? If this infection were a plot hatched by an evil alien genius to conquer Earth without resistance, he read human nature exactly right and will succeed. Many will give up freedom for a little bit of safety. You mean I need more than one mask, Tenderly!?

Edited December 23, 2020 by whYNOT

[JASKN 247]

This mask (etc...) debacle has ironically made me friendlier to the general populace. I wear a mask begrudgingly only as required by businesses, but I find myself being nicer and smiling genuinely more to people, whether they're wearing the muzzles themselves or not. I think friendliness is very important right now. However, I have no tolerance or sympathy for tattlers or do-gooders, and if they stop me they get a sharp dismissive reply.

[tadmjones 54]

I’m my normal friendly and outgoing casual shopper and even more conspicuously, consciously while wearing my Trump 2020 mask. 

[whYNOT 133]

If it were only a matter of individual rational behavior, that's easy. How hard can it be to be courteous, amenable and aware of others or even of others' grandmas back at home? One doesn't derive moral kudos from these. (Many do). So one can be flexible to different situations where other people are. And of their rights. The trouble is (the non-issue of) masking is all to do with group behavior, on the macro scale, not one's own acts. Your life isn't your own to choose. What's expected, demanded and/or mandated from one for the sake of the general, abstract, 'other' and their well-being is paramount. By governments and 'society' pressure.

Predictable and evident, any citizen runs short of good will under these circumstances, and gets a resentful but vague sense of his sacrifice to others, particularly where his 'selfish' livelihood, etc., is being hurt - but lacks the necessary ethics to explain how morally right he is. 

Compulsory blanket masking and social distancing that over-ride one's personal assessments and choice, are just an extension of lockdowns. We are released on condition of good behavior, comparative to prisoners wearing ankle bracelets who know they can be returned to gaol at the least arbitrary slip. E.g. "Ten" are allowed to gather, but twelve? decreed unlawful and harmful by the science bureaucrats and politicos who calculate and enforce these things. Even these social metaphysicians reluctantly grasp that they need the economies to recover and -some- human activity to return. Sorry to be the grouch...  

Edited December 24, 2020 by whYNOT

[happiness 33]

I wear one when required, out of respect for the fact that a private business is required to enforce the mandate. I never decided on a consistent policy to use in situations where I have a choice. I go for walks in a public park and don't wear one, even though it's required as far as I know, because no one is around to enforce. I'm not interested in wearing one without having a good medical reason to believe they actually work. If this premise were somehow proven, and this was communicated through a source I respect, I would be more interested in wearing one, but right now I feel like this is subjugation with unproven quackery at the hands of health authoritarians. 

Edited January 4 by happiness

[dream_weaver 565]

An app available for 'smartphones' has metrics of less than six feet in conjunction with a time-span of over 15 minutes, an interesting juxtaposition to superpose with an encounter generated by mere walk in a park, sans a face diaper.

[DavidOdden 126]

One of the bizarrest forms of ovine behavior that I've seen is people driving all by themselves, wearing the diaper. I wonder if they are afraid of infecting themselves.

[Doug Morris 28]

13 minutes ago, DavidOdden said:

One of the bizarrest forms of ovine behavior that I've seen is people driving all by themselves, wearing the diaper. I wonder if they are afraid of infecting themselves.

I sometimes put my mask on ahead of time, or leave it on in between times.  Why go to the extra trouble of taking it off and putting it on again?  Also, I have occasionally forgotten at first to put it on, and putting it on ahead of time is one way to prevent that.

I have tentatively decided that I will wear a mask for longer than Biden says, even if the only reason is to indicate that I don't blindly follow him.

[tadmjones 54]

On 1/4/2021 at 3:48 PM, Doug Morris said:

I sometimes put my mask on ahead of time, or leave it on in between times.  Why go to the extra trouble of taking it off and putting it on again?  Also, I have occasionally forgotten at first to put it on, and putting it on ahead of time is one way to prevent that.

I have tentatively decided that I will wear a mask for longer than Biden says, even if the only reason is to indicate that I don't blindly follow him.

Indicate to whom?

[Doug Morris 28]

4 hours ago, tadmjones said:

Indicate to whom?

To myself, at least.  And at least to avoid indicating the opposite.

[Tenderlysharp 33]

On 12/22/2020 at 7:16 PM, dream_weaver said:

Faceless. As in one's mouth and nose obscured by a mask (as has been typically been observed.)

The opportunity to express one's self to others still transcends this protocol. At this stage, our eyes and ears are not obscured.

My daughter and her husband expressed the fact that they had likely contracted CoViD-19. The symptoms, thus far, have been relatively mild. She, being in the nursing field, indicated that her two boys were to develop their immunity to CoViD-19 over the Christmas holiday—should they contract it— changing the usual course of the last 15 years of our historical tradition of having gotten together for this holiday season.

I respect her decision, and conversely, she respects mine.

 

It seems freedom twinkles around the edges... these moments where a person has the consciousness to show the rare benevolence that is still cherished in America.  

It was difficult worrying for my son when he had Covid last February.  I compare that initial worry with wondering if he was going to get it all year, and appreciate how we got it over with.  Our family has also been missing the usual get togethers, luckily my brother is building a large patio so we can catch up this spring.  Mutual respect is crucial for relationships, its good to see someone doing what they can with a difficult situation.  

[Tenderlysharp 33]

On 12/23/2020 at 6:13 AM, whYNOT said:

What metaphysics? Nobody is in full contact with reality (poorly substituted by the pallid, rehashed 'reality' from TV and our e-devices), and what epistemology, anyway, where little rationality could be sustained in this non-real, under-active dream state? 

This has been on my mind a lot lately.  It seems each person struggles in this dream state to a certain degree.  It looks like contact with reality takes a tremendous amount of time, effort, and the evolutionary advantage of a developed frontal cortex.  How do I describe the dawning I encountered when Ayn Rand gave me my first real taste of what reality might be... after spending thirty years of doing the best I could with the primitive tools I had.  

On 12/23/2020 at 6:13 AM, whYNOT said:

And what "identity", one's human, physical self-identity and 'other'-identity, that distinguishes one from the crowd - when individuality is hidden behind a face covering, you can't hardly recognize an acquaintance, struggle to hear their muffled voice and are not permitted to touch each other? 

What "identity"... identity as a man, as a romantic, as a fertile animal, as a brother, as a friend, as an internet acquaintance.  Man seems especially hungry for a hero of consciousness to access a path or foundation with resilience to weather the storm.  

On 12/23/2020 at 6:13 AM, whYNOT said:

If this infection were a plot hatched by an evil alien genius to conquer Earth without resistance, he read human nature exactly right and will succeed. Many will give up freedom for a little bit of safety. 

Plague scares are not uncommon throughout history, what kind of mind has gotten through with more benevolence and freedom intact?  

On 12/23/2020 at 6:13 AM, whYNOT said:

You mean I need more than one mask, Tenderly!?

one of em has eyes as big as jolly ranchers.  I've been focusing on neural science and psychology lately.  Carl Jung's thoughts are interesting.  The ancient use of masks in culture to get a grip on negative emotion...  Halloween is our yearly tradition dressing up as our favorite boogie man to make fun of insecurities it seems.  

[Hermes 8]

I have several to match the clothes I wear. I have one with red-white-and-blue when I am in old GI clothes. I have one with constellations for when I have on an astronomy-theme T-shirt. I have one with a corporate logo that goes with the corporate polo shirts.

We should have been doing this all along, but we accepted it as normal that people could come to work sick and pass their germs along to others. In the old days before connectivity, that might have been an excuse: we have to show up at work and work is important to our livelihood and the clients and their customers. But even if that was the case mid-20th century, back before 1985, I got a catalog book of software developers and most of them reported 1 or 2 employees and company revenues of $50,000 or $100,000 per year and locations in small places all over. Shortly after that, I joined my first BBS. But some years earlier, I actually got a message across my terminal at one college from a friend a different college. So, we could have been doing this for decades. 

Four years ago, I worked for a software development firm that actually had a stay-home-when-sick policy. This guy came in sick. Two days later he was still sick and I said something to HR and they said, "Oh, we don't follow that. The policies are just written for us by another firm we hire." The next day he was out ... and so was the guy in the cubie next to his..

I believe that spreading germs should be actionable. They locked up Typhoid Mary without a trial. Well, maybe a trial should have been held. In her interview with Edward R. Murrow, Ayn Rand said that the government has a role to prevent intentional harm and does not need to wait for actual harm. It is something to consider in the development of objective law.

Edited Monday at 10:06 PM by Hermes