On giving up Human Contact.

@maxdancona,

Since you (and McGentrix as well) often refer to yourself as one familiar with the workings of scientists it just struck me as odd that you would make such a pronouncement. For all we know, a similar zoonotic disease could emerge at any time. The conditions which allowed covid-19 to spread around the world have been temporarily affected by our attention to public health but when these measures are relaxed there's no reason why another bout with a mutated form of this disease or a new, even deadlier, one couldn't occur.

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@McGentrix,

Quote:

Maybe you don't grasp what rare means?

Maybe you don't grasp what "one time" means.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Since you (and McGentrix as well) often refer to yourself as one familiar with the workings of scientists it just struck me as odd that you would make such a pronouncement. For all we know, a similar zoonotic disease could emerge at any time. The conditions which allowed covid-19 to spread around the world have been temporarily affected by our attention to public health but when these measures are relaxed there's no reason why another bout with a mutated form of this disease or a new, even deadlier, one couldn't occur.

I don't get what you are arguing, Hightor.

I agree with you that a similar zoonotic desease could emerge at any time. So what?

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@maxdancona,

You declared that this pandemic is a rare, one time event. I'm just pointing out that there's no guarantee that it, or something very similar, won't happen again — in which case it's neither "rare" nor "one time". I'm not "arguing", I'm merely questioning your scientific certainty.

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@hightor,

We are discussing whether people are going to need to stay isolated forever after this epidemic is over (assuming that another pandemic doesn't happen to start right away).

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

We are discussing whether people are going to need to stay isolated forever after this epidemic is over...

I know what you're discussing. But why would people need to stay isolated forever if there were no pandemic? That doesn't make any sense at all.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Quote:
We are discussing whether people are going to need to stay isolated forever after this epidemic is over...

I know what you're discussing. But why would people need to stay isolated forever if there were no pandemic? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Do I really need to explain this better? Or, are you just looking for an argument.

This thread is to challenge the idea that our lives won't go back to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic is over. There are people talking about never shaking hands again, and saying that "our lives will never be the same".

I believe in 5 years, life will be very much like it was last year.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

I believe in 5 years, life will be very much like it was last year.

I pretty much agree. I don't see it in the positive light that you do, but that's a different discussion.

Quote:

Obviously I am reacting to the people who want to turn post pandemic society in to some germophobe utoptia free from physical contact.

Obviously other people are reacting to a world where physical contact is way too common and where too many of the people we interact with presume a non-existent level of familiarity and a perfunctory pretense of intimacy and feel entitled to some sort of physical interaction when words and looks are sufficient. The less touchie-feelie people have been eager to shed some of the trappings of pseudo-confidentiality and quasi-communion and begin to redefine their boundaries and private space as a reaction to surveillance capitalism, so I suspect that there were already beginnings of a physical contact withdrawal pre-covid, independent of any germophobia. In other words, a decline in the practice of physical contact could have social causes other than the covid-19 pandemic. Let's see what handwashing is like in five years.

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@hightor,

I do agree

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@hightor,

My daughter navigates two cultures. One culture tells her that she doesn't have to hug grandma (my mother) if she doesn't want to. After all it is her body and her choice blah blah blah. If she "chooses" not to hug her abuela (her mother's mother), she will be smacked (probably by multiple aunts). Failing to respect your grandparents is disrespecting your family... it isn't done

I grew up in the emotionally sterile American culture. Everything is about "me". It is my choice and my space and my feelings. Each decade it seems worse, Americans are looking for ways to take personal affront and to prevent any personal interaction that we can't control.

There is something refreshing about a culture that emphasizes connection, community and even "duty" to family over self-reliance and independence. The American culture gives each person a "safe" space, but it is at the cost of connections and interdependence.

Interestingly, my daughter context switches between two cultures with little problem. Having a sterile emotional environment is not a human need.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Quote:

I grew up in the emotionally sterile American culture. Everything is about "me". It is my choice and my space and my feelings.

I grew up in the USA as well but my experience was different. I never saw the culture as "emotionally sterile" — more like embarrassingly puerile — nor did I pick up the egotistical message that you seem to have suffered from.

Quote:

There is something refreshing about a culture that emphasizes connection, community and even "duty" to family over self-reliance and independence.

You pose it as an either/or situation but I don't see it that way at all. Families can be oppressive just as much as individual self-reliance can be excessive. You seem to value one over the other rather than recognizing that we have the freedom and the opportunity to balance each to the degree we wish.

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The American culture gives each person a "safe" space, but it is at the cost of connections and interdependence.

What do you mean — USAmericans are addicted to connections and interdependence — to find a "safe space" in this country means turning off social media, which people find very difficult to do.

Quote:

Having a sterile emotional environment is not a human need.

That's probably why no one is calling for it. There's a big difference between having a "sterile emotional environment" and simply choosing a more self-reliant approach to life because it's what you prefer. Evidently you missed this comment:

Sturgis wrote:

People are not all the same. Some are outgoing, others just aren't. Some are touch-feely others don't want anybody pawing them.

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@hightor,

I am just relating my own personal experience. But it is the case...

The more I meet other people, the less enamored I am with Americans.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Fair enough. I was fortunate, having never been enamored with USAmericans.

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On giving up Human Contact.

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