So as part of an effort to be more mindful, I plan on posting regularly on this blog. I know I'm behind on some things such as a recap of my trip to Belize but this will be more about getting out the concepts in my thoughts. I'll probably not publish these to social media but if you come across them and you want to share then please do so.
With that said this was something I was thinking about this morning. I came across a cluster of masks that are the artifacts of the pandemic and it sparked a thought. There was such a fervor over the wearing of masks during and since the pandemic. It caused a division among the populace that calcified mostly along political party lines (yes I know there is a little bit of blurring but it was mostly). There was also a ton of misinformation/misunderstanding of the purpose of masks which continues to today. The purpose of masks is to protect others from the germs that spew forth from your breathing. They do little to stop small particles from being inhaled by you unless you are using a proper respirator. This means that it is meant to help stopping the spread of infections from you.
This is directly analogous to political affiliations. For those that are left of center, the idea of performing actions to better those beyond yourself and your close in-group is paramount. Whereas those that are right of center focus on themselves and their close in-group at the expense of the greater community. The former group would wear masks and encourage others to wear masks in order to stop the spread of diseases. The latter group denounced masks because it was inconvenient and, based on misinformation, ineffective.
This same debate is happening with vaccines even with a resurgence measles and pertussis, the explosion of the current flu, and the persistence of COVID. The division among people concerned with such things is mostly along party affiliation.
My final thought on this is that making the wider community safer will make your in-group safer and therefore put in the thought and effort to do so.
