Masks

It appears we have to learn anew the truism that reality unfolds more by unanticipated twists and turns than in a linear fashion fairly routinely. "The best-laid plans of mice and men" and all that.

We're having a big-time relearning experience right now. Who, a year ago, could have predicted that the wearing of surgical masks would be an ideologically charged behavior and a symbol for a broad set of practices undertaken - or not - in response to an epidemiological phenomenon that has come to define daily American life?

It was the stuff of rumors and speculation for most of America until mid-March. It gradually insinuated itself into society until it did so abruptly. Unless someone gets a whopping case of it that really lays him or her low - perhaps killing them - it's a silent aggressor. We all knew there would be an inflection point after which life would change, but about all we could do was carry on and wait. 

From that moment on, there have been scoffers. There has also been a "well-okay-it's-serious-but-people-still-have-their-constitutional-rights" crowd, for which the implementation of various states' phased plans for reopening was still a draconian violations of personal choice and freedom of association.

We've all seen the YouTube videos of violent confrontations at store entrances. Dr. Fauci has received serious threats to himself and his family.  Liz Cheney's expression of admiration for Dr. Fauci has become a political football among Congressional Republicans. 

I live in a reliably red state, but it does have its blue outposts. Probably Exhibit A for that is a city that is home to the largest campus of our largest state university. It's been a Mecca of hipness for decades - excellent music scene, a pioneer food co-op that got going in the mid-1970s, expressions of solidarity with everything one would expect, persnickety ordinances about all manner of aspects of lifestyle. A few years ago, some folks in the area who saw things in a diametrically opposite way to much of the city's overall culture formed a grassroots conservative organization. I was greatly encouraged and went to several of its monthly meetings for a while. I was particularly encouraged by the fact that in its late 2015-early 2016 monthly straw polls, other Republican presidential candidates far outdid Donald Trump. In fact, he was usually dead last. These people are the real deal, I thought.

Alas, they have now made masks their hill to die on. Rallies, exhortations to call the offices of the governor and state representatives, bullet-point lists of reasons not to wear a mask.

There is so much data out there, tailored to every conceivable confirmation bias, that eventually you have to bring your gut into it. I'm comfortable doing so. I have a pretty reliable sense of intuition. It's served me well over the years. It tells me this: The United States is either in a second wave of the pandemic, or the first has come out of dormancy. Inquiry into how coronavirus spreads has led to a consensus among credible people and organizations that wearing masks and social distancing are two simple practices that, if studiously followed, could tame this fearsome threat. 

To be sure, there is an element on the Left that is also making ideological hay with this. Mask-shaming does not have anything to recommend it. It invites resentment, backlash and further societal brittleness. 

But this is another one of those contemporary situations in which there is a way to proceed that's right because it's so obviously sensible. 

Vote for whoever yanks your chain, but wear the damn mask.