Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Yow. Have people gotten numb from COVID, even if they themselves haven’t had it?

The problem - the sickness - in our country (vs developed countries) runs deeper, as I suspect you know (but didn't say). "The government" - the American government - is in large part fifty smaller ones, split between two increasingly diametrically opposed sides; even the national federal government is divided between a judiciary held by one side, vetoing actions by (a timid) executive. And I think you'd agree that ideological split is *crucial* to understanding much of COVID - which is simply a continuation of the same underlying philosophical split that has set our country apart and below developed nations on so many fronts.

Fundamentally, there is a substantial fraction of our country which believes that it is appropriate to (consciously or unconsciously) accept a higher number of dead, in order to preserve "freedom". That it is okay for larger numbers of others to die - or even themsleves to die - if the individual can be allowed to choose - to make - irresponsible decisions. (While of course taking advantage of the collective to bail them out *for* those irresponsible decisions.)

Our country has for years effectively accepted higher death rates from shootings in exchange for a paucity of requirements to own firearms - accepting Sandy Hook et al. so that guns can be less well regulated than teddy bears or the right to drive a car, because "freedom".

Our country has for years effectively accepted higher death rates from lack of equitable access to health care, in exchange for the freedom for well-positioned individuals to make far larger profits. We *know* that our more-heavily for-profit based health care results in shorter lifespans, greater deaths, greater suffering, than the more equitable health care systems of developed nations. Lifespans of people born in Alabama or Arkansas - even among whites, unburdened by racial discrimination - are today far closer to Mexico than Canada. America has - even among whites - worse infant mortality and lower lifespans, but far more millionaires connected to the health care "market". Our country has for years effectively accepted higher death rates for this, because "freedom".

So it is not surprising that we saw and are seeing - especially in the state governments held by their side - a (unconscious and conscious) acceptance of additional dead from COVID, because "freedom". North and South Dakota, Montana and Idaho had literally twice as many dead per capita from COVID as their provincial neighbors immediately to the north - yet they simply shrug and say that those thousands of extra dead were acceptable losses because of "freedom". The virulent fights against masks; the (right-wing) SCOTUS blockade against even the modest vaccine requirements the President tried to impose, the widespread (on their side) refusal to take a vaccine tested literally billions of times and the demand to take horse dewormer instead; like in gun control, like in for-profit health care, so too in COVID, once again, a large faction of Americans think thousands of extra dead among their neighbors is an appropriate price, to preserve their right to behave without consequence or responsibility.

Yes, we ought to continue to try to do better, just as we tried to do better with responsible gun ownership regulation, just as we tried to do better with equitable health care systems, just as we try to do better on a thousand other fronts where "personal freedom" clashes with higher death among ones neighbors, family, or friends. But fundamentally, we're up against a political philosophy that values the right to do whatever one wants - no matter the cost to others - above all things.

We've proven for the last few decades that our country is *not* a healthy society. COVID simply a predictable reiteration of this. The country that functionally shrugged off Sandy Hook - and all that followed - would always be the country that would functionally shrug off thousands of extra dead from COVID because "freedom" to not wear a mask or not get a vaccine was more important.

The *real* challenge is how our country addresses *that* ideological divide - the divide between those who claim and value above all else the right to do whatever they want, no matter how abusive to everyone else, and those who hope for better.

Or if we cannot find a cure for that sickness: to prepare for what history says are the inevitable consequences.