Let’s analyze the most important effect of this COVID-19(84) hoax on our daily lifes and their symbolic at a deep psychological level:
Lockdown means prison@home so to say. Prison is deprivation of freedom, lockdown has the same effect. In the lockdown times back in March we had to stay at home and we were only allowed to go outside a couple times a day only to buy food and go to the doctor. In prison you are also allowed to leave your cell a couple times a day to eat, and to go to the yard. Being imprisoned is reducing our freedom, this is the most notorious aspect in our daily lifes of this “crisis”.
Social distancing means social isolation. In a prison if you want to punish someone you isolate him. We were during lockdown isolated in families, with our cell buddies so to say. There is also something of an initiation rite in the lockdown. Many initation rites start with an isolation phase which means some kind of symbolic death of the old life with subsequent rebirth or methamorphosis into a new person or reality. The lockdown and the subsequent announced “new normal” would fit into this concept.
Masking people means repression. Repression because you are symbollically and physically repressing the capacity of people to express. In the islamic cultures the less rights women have the more “masked” they are (example with burka)
The other social symbol besides the mask is the compulsive and repeating hand washing. Like Pontius Pilates washing our hands is also a symbol for rejecting the responsibility for our actions
Other aspect is contact tracing, this has not much symbolism but I think it has the practical aspect of accomodating us to the future increasing surveillance with more invasive control. Being surveilled even if we go to the swimming pool or cafe.
So this new abnormal is full of deep symbolism under the cover of “science”. There are also other implicit “new rules” or paradigms which are not explicitly mentioned but they are not less important. It is about the logic of wearing masks, vaccinating and anything else. We are not being adviced to wear masks and vaccinate to protect ourselves. We are being forced to wear masks and to (probably in the future) vaccinate to protect the others. We are guilty that others die get sick etc if we do not comply. This is nonsense. Everyone is responsible for himself and if you are afraid to get sick then wear masks or stay at home but do not force the rest to do so. If I fear the risk of a disease I will vaccinate myself, the same is for you. Everyone decides for himself. You take the responsibility for your own life. If we start to break the limits of body autonomy for the greater good of society, we enter in a very dangerous paradigm. Because the science will dictate what we must do with our bodies (vaccinate, sterilize, euthanize), once the limit is broken you can justify anything for the greater good. And we know science is not pure objective knowledge, those who pay the party, say which music is will be played, ergo in which direction will be researched, and let’s not be naive research is very expensive and full with conflict of interests. The history is full of radical changes in the scientific paradigm, what settled science is today may be not correct tomorrow.
I think one of the most effective ways of combating the new abnormal is reframing, for example ridiculing symbolically the “symbols” of the new abnormal. But I will dedicate a specific post with fresh ideas.