The Government messaging around Covid-19 is becoming increasingly confusing, as this hilarious Twitter thread shows [HT to Newsroom]. Although I have a really strong aversion to authoritarian tendencies, I’m not a rule-breaker by nature. However, when understanding and following the rules around Covid-19 becomes as difficult and dense as fine print I switch off and rely on gut feeling and common sense to do the right and to avoid doing the wrong thing. Many people try to adhere to the fine print without even reading it and companies do know this and sometimes take advantage of it, or sometimes they take the piss.
The thing is that we usually get away with this level of wilful complacency and even justify it; we get on with life as we see fit. Consumer interest groups and advocates have argued for years to make things simpler in contracts, policies, and Terms of Service, for example. Indeed, make it as simple as possible, but no simpler [thanks Albert Einstein] AKA the KISS principle. Getting away with it means that the risk is perceived low and it is safe. It might be the other side of opportunism – “pretty legal” comes to mind and there’s no problem until or unless caught.
In the days when we faced imminent threats and death as soon as we stepped out of our cave, we relied on razor-sharp senses and lightning-fast reflexes for survival. These days, we rely on GPS and smart devices run by smart software algorithms and the greatest risks we face when we step out of our heat-pump-controlled houses are forgetting our device or a major outage of major social media platforms and go into instant withdrawal of fluffy kitten photos. These are some of the many ‘existential’ threats of our time.
I’ve just driven the car to the dairy to pick up a courier parcel with headsets as the wear & tear of my current equipment made them almost unusable – it is always those bloody wire connections, same with chargers. After more than 7 weeks, the car needed a run too to charge up the battery. It was no problem at all but it occurred to me that many younger Kiwis have never learned how to drive a manual car and wouldn’t be able to drive one. I lament the day that self-driving cars take over and we all lose the skill to drive ourselves.
Instead of living in caves we’re now living as hermits in bubbles. Even the most introverted among us needs to go out every so often to explore, discover, and experience the world, i.e. to live. And to take some risks. The more authorities are making decisions for us, tell us what to do, and treat us hapless citizens, the more hapless we’ll become; we’ll lose the skill to think on our feet, determine and even recognise risk, and make choices and decisions accordingly and appropriately – you’ll lose it if you don’t use it.
I’d hate NZ becoming a Nanny State populated by sheeple, but also respect the State has a duty to protect others from others or from themselves. In my ideal world, the State treats the people with respect and allows them enough freedom to make their own choices even if/when these are not necessarily optimal ones. But relying on the gut feeling and common sense of the prehistoric caveman inside us won’t suffice and serve us well in the complex modern world we live in and when facing a complex threat by an invisible enemy such as the Covid-19 pandemic. But neither does it mean that we should resort to social conditioning and engineering because we already have enough inequity in our society.
I believe that our Government is walking a very fine line between telling us what to do and making (all!) the decisions for us. In fact, I think they’re having it just right, for now. Patience (which is hard when there’s time pressure), respect, mutual trust, and clear & consistent information & education are the way to go. This Government will not let people die, but when people do die, from Covid-19, it is not the Government’s fault or failure. People make decisions that have consequences, for themselves and for others. However, we cannot influence and control everything in life, but we can better prepare ourselves and become more resilient.
They say that familiarity breeds contempt. They also say that convenience breeds laziness. It is convenient if Government tells us what to do but please let it be clear and make sense! Confusing toilet rules from the top don’t help to instil trust in Government. As always, people will rely on common sense to do what they think is right for them, even if this means using the indoor toilet when mixing outdoors with no more than 10 people and one other bubble, FFS! Sometimes, the gut feeling overrules common sense – when you have to go, you have to go.
Did we elect MPs to form a Government to tell us what to do or does Government do what we want it to do on our behalf, i.e. social contract versus social licence? There’s no easy answer to this and political ideology only leads to polarised unproductive tribal cultural wars and I am starting to have serious doubts that social media are conducive to constructive engagement and debate. I strongly lean towards making my own decisions to keep myself safe from Covid-19 because I believe that they will also keep others safe. Once that choice or decision is taken away from me, i.e. made for me by coercion or otherwise, I’ll rebel, disobey, and break rules, which gives me the much needed feeling of control and empowerment. That’s my gut feeling and common sense even though it might not serve me and/or others well.
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