Had your Covid Vaccine yet? Were you as relieved as I was? Freedom at last!
First, a visit to a friend in LA, then to Wenatchee, Washington, where my daughter and grandchildren live. With this travel came the reminder of changes in our nation.
What Is Freedom?
Breezing through the airport security checks, without the 20+ minute waits of 2019, nor the deserted, almost alien airports of 2020, sure felt like some freedom.
But then there was the difference between my familiar culture of Marin, and that of Wenatchee. It’s a middle-Washington agricultural community — apples, pears, cherries. Politically it is more centrist/conservative than Marin.
While installing a “mini-split” cooling/heating system in my daughter’s house, several trips were needed to local tool and supply stores.
In a welding supply store, a well tattooed, overweight male was shopping for a curled-brim cotton hat, printed all over with American flags. He announced to the store clerk, “I want to show I stand with Trump!”
Hard to conceive for me. And he wasn’t wearing a mask! I kept my distance.
Then there were the trucks. Several drive-along-side-you types with modified machine-gun mufflers, flags, etc, to “express independence”. Their acoustic barrage reminded me how one person’s independence can be another person’s assault.
You smoke a cigarette. We must inhale your smoke.
You ride a Harley-Davidson or modified truck. We suffer from your noise.
You assert your independence by not wearing a mask or not being vaccinated. You endanger me and others.
Similarly, corporations seem uncaring about their effects on others. For example, what right has Facebook to aggressively propagate lies that undermine our democracy? They profit, we suffer.
However, corporate attorney Robert Hinkley wrote in 2002 of a more balanced corporate charter: “The duty of directors [is] to make money for shareholders, . . . but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, the public health or safety, the communities in which the corporation operates or the dignity of its employees.”
Freedom has limits.
What Is The Role Of Independence In Freedom?
My recent travel experiences, reminded me of the struggle to balance our needs, including our need for independence, with the freedom to safely express our opinions.
On our life path, we choose friends and actions that meet our needs and preferences for freedom, comfort and security. But our choices are also a protective thorn bush, providing defense from intruders. Outside it, there are real dangers. Like Brer Rabbit, I sometimes feel insecure outside my briar bush.
I’ve written about freedom of expression before: For us Americans, it currently includes repeated lying and deception by politicians, storming the Capitol building, carrying military weapons in public, and a truckload of other American specialties.
Such exaggerated behavior reveals its shadow side. For example, exaggerated independence reflects a fear of dependence, a fear that I am not strong enough, that I am weak. It’s understandable that the far right is populated by mostly white males, the group most threatened by change and so the most to rightfully experience fear — from changes in technology and jobs, ethnic and sexual diversity, declining religiousness, and so on.
Independence has limits.
Change is Scary
The Covid 19 lock-down was traumatic for us all, bringing denial and rage from many. For me, coming out of isolation was exciting, but strange. The world has changed.
Some people revel in change. Others, the more anxious, retreat into their briar bush, seeking the company of like-minded (fearful-anxious) people. We support each other in our suspicion, even paranoia, of the social institutions that we suspect brought on the changes.
Interestingly, polling institutions currently have great difficulty gathering attitudinal information on the right. Pollsters are verbally attacked and hung up on. The right is proud to give the finger to convention. In some parts of the country, fear and rage are now much more visible and scary.
A relative of mine who lives in semi-rural Wisconsin told me of a neighbor who regularly fired a military cannon, miles into the distant woods. Recently that neighbor got into an argument with a friend when they were drinking while repairing his truck engine. The neighbor went inside, came out with a pistol, shot his friend, and then shot himself. That ended the cannon firing. Anxiety, paranoia, and violence are closely related. Think January 6.
Acceptable Discomfort
So, this is my take on my 10-day venture out from my coastal left-wing bubble into the now polarized and tribalized rural world. It was slightly uncomfortable but well within the understandable and acceptable range. It’s fairly easy to understand, though not necessarily to accept, that vast group of Americans, longing for certainty, gravitating to “the former guy”.
My visit with my daughter and grandchildren was, as usual, inspirational. I look forward to returning in six weeks. During that visit, I plan to install a new microwave oven and kitchen exhaust vent.
Post-vaccination, we are now venturing into a changed world, with inspirational White House leadership, a polarized, tribalized nation, and one political party hell-bent on preventing any social progress that could be credited to their self-decreed enemy.
Despite this, I’m feeling very positive about our nation’s future and its potential for increasing tolerance and equality. I’m also being careful to not stick my neck out — too far.
We all depend on each other, to some degree. The more crowded our world becomes, the more we must learn to get along with each other, fighting our common enemies such as global warming, mutating viruses, and our own self-destructiveness. If we don’t, we are doomed.
Stay safe. My best wishes.
Thank you for reading.
me, Barry Phegan
Add Your Name below to my list to know when I have posted a new blog.
