“So, you want me to wear a mask so you will feel safer? I’m telling you, it’s my right not to wear a mask.” Words to that effect have been heard too many times already in recent months, mostly in our neighbor to the south, the United States of America. This while Covid-19 infections rates are soaring to new heights. The speaker is implicitly accusing the other of being selfish. Might s/he be selfish too? I’ll leave the reader to decide who is most selfish in this scenario.
Phrases such as these are the result of reading America’s founding documents too literally. Interestingly, many of the same people read the scriptures too literally and also use them as weapons in their arguments. In this line of thinking, we’ve also heard words to the effect of, “God made my body and he made the air for me to breathe freely and I don’t need a mask in between.” Or, “God will protect me.”
What we have here is a convergence of individualism and fundamentalism. In other cases, it is an extreme view of civil rights, libertarianism. Relativism also plays into this. Everyone is their own interpreter of laws, of the Bible, of everything. Community and altruism suffer.
Where does this come from? How did we get to this place? Some trace it all the way back to the Enlightenment. The rational thought that originated there is what informed the founding fathers of the USA’s first documents and declaration, which speaker(s) such as the one(s) quoted to begin with point to in support of their stance.
Others point to the “God is Dead” movement, of which one of the earliest proponents was German philosopher Friedrich Nietszche. He, in fact, predicted precisely where we are at over 100 years later. His life trajectory paralleled where society can end up if we follow his philosophy to its extreme – he ended up with a complete loss of his intellectual and cognitive abilities.
The existentialism, post-modernism and post-structuralism which followed really gained momentum with the hedonism of the ‘60s. Any reference point outside of man was out the window. There were no absolutes. All of which brings us to where we are today. Living in a moral vacuum with real leadership in short supply. The title under which I write this can also be summed up in two quotes from The Ancient Writings which many know, “”They sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind (The Ancient Sayings 8:7),” and the writings of Amabassador Paul to the Galatian Church, “”You reap whatever you sow (6:7).”
To be sure, not all have bought into all this thinking. There are still good people out there, those who do show that they are made in God’s image. They can be found in every society, in every religion, in every profession and occupation, in every neighbourhood. There is still hope. In fact, right after that line to the Galatians, Witness Paul writes, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all (6:9-10).” Those, my friends, are the words we should live by. Those words embody a spirit that rises above individualism and selfishness. Those are the words that someone who will wear a mask might be living by.
