Actions can have strange consequences: The ball that never meant harm may crack a neighbouring window and supportive advice may accidentally hurt a friend, but where do we start holding people accountable? We’re often very quick to let go of things in an idealistic fashion but should we be more straightforward in our reasoning. If the naïve child is screamed at for being irresponsible by your neighbour, should we be more openly vocal to our government in the same sense?
Many may have noticed the several national acts of support that the government has recently decreed, where we were instructed to perform supportive acts for doctors by creating widespread noise by banging plates or turning the lights off, what a grand favour we did to these nation heroes by creating both riot and shadow! These efforts were taken in hopes of raising the doctors’ spirits with gratitude for their unyielding efforts in the recent trying times. While support is a necessary step to keep the doctors going in this fight against this virus, let’s take a step back to see what we’ve really accomplished.
We may have communicated our support through whatever unorthodox -and not to mention disruptive- means, it’s important to note the side-effects. Many people had taken it upon themselves to turn this idea into a festival of sorts, public gatherings were initiated in over 70 cities with the average number of people in each gathering easily exceeding the 200 mark. In a country where Chinese whispers are only second to Chinese viruses in transmission, this celebratory idea is unfathomably counterproductive! Giving open access for virus transmission and furthering the burden on these doctors we were supposedly helping seems to be a huge step backwards.
It’s all well and good to preach support, but in a situation this widespread I urge people to understand that responsibilities come down unit, each individual can cause a threat to several others. Something as simple as a touch can infect, each small decision requires careful thought both micro and macro. The government is the macro that routes the micro, the heaviest decisions come to them, and if they drop the ball, the consequences will be so widespread, they’ll be irreversible. We simply must not be complacent with helpful facades.
We’re all children with bats surrounded by a wall of windows, even though sport is not a crime within itself, we shouldn’t leave the workers to clean up our broken glass, or at least those of us that see that our protection is being shattered, should be the neighbours that tell the government not to give us bats, lest some of us forget how to use them.