Should we really get used to it?

Sociologists describe a number of “big trends”, the statistically observable global changes in the world that are happening now. The most often sited among them are 1) a clear tendency for reduced violence and 2) a constantly growing value of human life.

Much as both sound positive, each one had a “dark side”. The trend for a generally reduced violence prevents governments from outright murdering political protesters. But the same trend prevents protesters from using violence to quickly overthrow oppressive and ineffective governments, prolonging their existence and suffering for what seems like forever (e.g. Venezuela). A growing value of human life leads to enormous efforts to save lives when they are threatened. But the same trend may sometimes lead to sacrificing economic, social and psychological well-being of millions to save thousands (e.g. 2020)

These days there is a lot of talk about the so called “new normal”, and what it would look like. Some argue that soon we’ll see all airports and even apartment buildings being equipped with “temperature-taking” frames, much like we saw metal detector frames installed at the airports after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. “We’ve got used to metal detectors, we’ve got used to Zooms and masks, we’ll get used to taking our temperature too”, often say the proponents of the “new normal”, hopping on to happily discuss the alleged merits and future of distance learning and remote medical consultations…

But hold on a second! Did you notice what I just did? Yes, about the detector “frames” at the airports. There is a difference between them and metal detectors. And a Big difference!

When I have to get through a metal detector frame at an airport, it is a bit of a nuisance, but I know for sure I don’t have any weapons on me, so – unless someone deliberately planted them - I would know for sure I am not liable for being arrested and detained.

Now, unless I am staying in bed with high fever, in most cases I would have no idea whether I have a mild fever or not. It could be hot outside, I could be nervous (and many people will certainly be more nervous now than before), I could have a minor cold, it could be a side effect of any other medicine I am taking, it could be more or less anything! But if the “fever-detector frame” considers me “feverish”, it will certainly not be a” minor” nuisance anymore…

I will not be allowed to get on the plane, so my trip (and any other reservations) will be abruptly cancelled, with no compensation, of course. Secondly, I might be a subject to forced medical examination, I might very well be detained for some hours, until my forced – and quite possibly inaccurate – test results arrive. Then there is a 50-50 chance, depending on the arbitrary test result, of me been interned for a couple of weeks (in some countries you will have to pay the costs of internment yourself!), this time possibly risking a real infection from some of my new “inmates”. At the same time my family and people I know would be immediately added to the list of “health suspects” and potential “health threats”, with corresponding restrictions imposed on them as well. Not to mention the lost income from the trip I went on, a real possibility of losing a job if it was linked to travel (who would tolerate a 50-50 chance of failure for every business trip?) and all the stress associated with this experience, that will further reduce my immunity, therefore making me more vulnerable to possible infection.

And all of that without me having done anything wrong, my only “fault” being living in natural symbiosis with the multitude of bacteria and viruses, just like all my biological ancestors have been living for millennia!

Would that be the “new normal”? Is that the way our society would eventually “take care” of our health? By forcing everyone to take a vaccine with the unknown consequences? By arresting anyone with the symptoms of a flu? And what if, at some point, scientists discover that asthma, rheumatism, cancer, allergies and cardio-vascular disease are also caused by previously unknown viruses (and there is, apparently, some research for cancer exploring this hypothesis)? Will all these people be interned too? To protect the “healthy us” from the “unhealthy them”? Just this time the border between “us” and “them” not being determined by race, gender, the colour of our skin, the shape of my nose, my religion or any other “visible” difference, but an obscure and possibly inaccurate medical certificate of “epidemiological cleanness”?

My health used to be my own concern. Now, all of a sudden, my health, becomes a “security threat” to others. My health, i.e. something I cannot really do much about, much like the color of my skin. And while there’s a lot of - sometimes too much - talk about the latter these says, nobody notices the creeping shadow of a new, “health” racism coming up…

Back in 1986 Robert Jay Lifton, an American psychiatrist, published The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. He interviewed hundreds of Nazi “doctors” after the WWII trying to find out why they did what they did. One of the things he noticed that these doctors were obsessed with physical “cleanness”. And, as it turned out, crossing the line between advocating for "physical" cleanness and practicing "ethnic" cleanness was not all that difficult…

All of the above sounds excessively alarmist and gloomy, and it is. It will not be that bad, of course. I will have my own thermometer with me, and I will probably take a totally unnecessary paracetamol pill to fool the temperature detectors at the airport. Of course, the airport officials would not want half of the passengers to be taken off the planes, so they will adjust the sensitivity on all compulsory temperature detectors accordingly. For sure there will be a huge lucrative black market for fake “negative” test certificates, and few officials will ever bother checking. And the only price the society will be paying will be an increased level of hypocrisy, dishonesty and loss of integrity, but what government ever cared about that?

“We will get used to it”, happily say optimists among us. True, humans can get used to almost anything. Ask Holocaust survivors.

So, maybe we shouldn’t?