It seems like a different era already, when Zeke called me from Brooklyn in March, just after the shutdown began. I hadn't talked to him since the previous summer when I had seen him in person in a little breakfast place just off Flatbush Avenue during my trip to New York. In the wake of that meeting, he had arranged for me to do some work at the design firm he co-owns in Portland.
When the shutdown began in March, and New York was hit hard, I had texted him as a matter of courtesy to see how things were in his neighborhood. He called me back and we had a nice friendly chat. He and his girlfriend were holed up in his flat in Williamsburg. He joked that one of the benefits of the shutdown was the home delivery of alcoholic beverages such as prepared cocktails. For a certain type of person this seems to have been a great bonanza that made up for part of the inconvenience of being self-quarantined. I don't drink much--only in the company of others--but I could tell that it was something that people would have a hard time giving up once things got back to normal.
At the time Zeke had already become an early convert to the idea of using masks to stop the spread of the disease. He was so early in this regard, and so passionate about it on social media, that he was interviewed by a local New York news affiliate. This took place against the backdrop of the Dr. Fauci and the World Health Organization insisting that masks had no effect on the spread of the disease. The national media was ridiculing anyone who stated that masks would make any difference.
Zeke and I are probably polar opposites in politics, but I know that only from his social media. It never comes up in conversations about business. He's extremely friendly and sanguine. So at the time it never occurred to politics would ever come into play on this issue. Rather, inspired by him, I went along with his suggestion. I didn't think it would actually do much to stop the disease, but it seemed like a decent idea, since every little bit that one could do would help.
At that time it was impossible to find any type of mask online or in stores, so I used a purple bandana from one of my visits to Burning Man, with the well-known festival logo on it. It's very common at the festival wear one around one's neck, to pull up over their faces in case of a sudden dust storm.
The next time I went to the neighborhood market, I tied the bandana around my neck and went inside with it pulled up over my face like a bandit. I suppose I was one of the first people in north Scottsdale to do this. No one else in the store, employees or customers, was wearing any kind of face protection, as hardly one thought about it yet. I felt like an Arizona desperado. But no one flinched as I went around the store, mostly checking out what items were still missing, such as rice, which was nearly cleaned out at the time except for one bag of Black Japonica that sat lonely on the shelf for weeks on end.
Within a few weeks it seemed like everyone was clamoring for masks, and they were still impossible to buy, so people started making their own. J's mother made several types of patterns for us using the sewing machines at the community center of the RV park where they live in Mesa.
Looking back it seems obvious that all of this would get politicized, as it now has. Sometime in early June, when conversing with some Democrat friends of J's parents, I noticed their obsession with punishing those who didn't wear masks. It was clear they thought they had found a winning issue against their opponents. Only Trump supporters rebelled against masks, goes their reasoning, and in doing so they were. menace to public health.
Unfortunately many clueless Trump supporters have gone right along with this script, not realizing that this is precisely what their opponents want them to do. They want Trump supporters to make a big deal about how they ain't gonna wear no stupid mask. Then they can say, "look at those stupid Trump supporters! They don't believe in science!"
It's the kind of bad faith argument from the Left that repulses me about their entire cause. It's usually never about the specific thing they want. If they were actually interested in having everyone adopt masks for public health, they would stage their appeal in a completely different way. But they are not interested in unifying the country around the idea. They are interested in dividing the country, and unifying their side in a hectoring stance against their opponents.
If they were interested in public health they wouldn't endorse the idea of thousands of people crammed into a public plaza in Portland screaming through their cloth face coverings while standing right next to each other. They would discourage this. But they don't. The revolution is more important.
Of course there are plenty of folks who are indeed concerned with the public health aspects of it. These people are on both sides. J's mother wears hers obsessively to protect her husband, who has a heart condition, and who is in the high risk group because of his age and his illness.
I'm still dubious that it does much to stop the spread of the disease, especially among healthy people. Moreover, it is debatable whether we actually want to try to stop the spread (instead of just slowing it down, to avoid overwhelming the hospital system, which was the original purpose in March, and which seems to have been successful). It's almost impossible to make rational scientific judgments about what is going on, given the unreliability of data as it is being reported.
Nevertheless, my attitude remains essentially what it was when I went into AJ's market with my Burning Man bandana back in late March. Despite any doubts I may have about the efficacy of wearing them, I will do it as a matter of courtesy to others and in the pitching in to the common effort. Also there is a city-wide executive order from the Mayor of Scottsdale, and so I will of course comply with all local health regulations.
Personally I'm not worried about getting the disease, and any effect it would have. I can't imagine a scenario where I would get such a heavy viral load that it would overwhelm my immune system. I'm confident that my immune system, if exposed to it, would be able to fight it off and produce the antibodies, and eventually the T-cell immunity, so that I become part of the herd immunity.
As for Arizona, people were freaking out last month about the spike in cases. But the death rate never shot up very much and now it looks like the peak has passed. I'm intrigued by the idea that air conditioning may be at the root of this recent spread, especially as the case loads are now spiking in the northern states. Perhaps this is a good thing, however, in that it may produce a healthy herd immunity before winter arrives, when the disease would be more deleterious in its effects.
Even after all this is over, it will take years, even decades, to sift through the data, to clarify what it means, comparing the apples of one country to the oranges of another, and to make judgments over what would have been the correct course of action. Everything right now has a political edge to it, which is unfortunate. I can smell bad faith arguments a mile away. The Leftists want their appeal for everyone to wear masks to be a victory of power over their opponents.
I understand the pushback against this politicization by some of the President's supporters, but I cringe at it as well. They are only making it harder for him, and he has a lot to deal with, not the least of which is a Bad Faith press corps and the fake news media, which is always looking for the attack vector that they think will best take him down.
For a while it was "OMG we don't have enough ventilators", and then it was "testing, testing, testing," and now it is "mask up!", with the last one spoken with the tone of voice that implies "you idiots" at the end. Like everything on the Left, it's never just about what you do, but how you feel about it while you're doing it.
At least Zeke seems to get it. Like everyone else on his side, he forgot about the virus for six weeks while we obsessed over destroying Whiteness in America. But that having been accomplished, it's time to back to the virus. Looking at his social media feed, I see none of the political posturing of humiliation. Instead I think he just wants people to wear masks. That's a Good Faith stance. Bully for him.
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