There are multiple news stories of people ignoring the
advice--even the orders--of government officials and health authorities to
"shelter in place" and avoid crowds, groups, etc.
I read that many people are going to church. If that's not a
crowd, I don't know what is. I strongly suspect that they feel that, if they
are good, faithful, believing church goers, God will protect them from any
illness. My money is on the other side, that this behavior is spreading the
virus. But then I freely admit that we've got radically differing worldviews
going on here.
And then there are the people gathering on beaches and so
forth--for example, students on their spring break in Florida.
Police had to disperse these crowds and then officials closed the beaches. In
this case we think of the fact that young people seem to feel they are
invulnerable and often show poor judgment.
So I thought it was going to turn out to be young people involved,
again, when I saw a story about police breaking up a party in New
Jersey where the partygoers were packed into a 550-sq
ft apartment. But no, in this case it was actually a 47-year-old man who was hosting
the party. He called it a "corona party." I can only think of
adjectives like stupid and foolish and defiance of advice (and government orders)
such as you'd expect from 18 year olds.
Well, readers of my blog may have already divined
that--based on life experience of almost more decades than I care to admit
to--I have conceived a low opinion of the wisdom and rationality of the mass of
my fellow human beings. In an age when the survival of humanity is threatened
by climate change and destruction of animal species and of the environment in
general, I find it difficult to side with the optimists.
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