I read the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World many years ago, and while I’m able to recall it’s plot vaguely after all this time, the sentiment conjured simply by the title is much more powerful than the memory of the story.
I don’t have to tell you though that we’re already living in a new world. Things seem upside-down and backwards (didn’t I just post about it already being September?). But is our new world “brave?” Certainly not in Huxley’s sense (although to delve into his meaning would get too close to a high school English class for comfort). But not in any other sense either. People are anything but brave these days. As bold and unique as they claim they want to be – and they’ve got the tattoos to prove it – it seems that everyone would rather just go along with whatever crowd they’ve chosen and leave the bravery to those of us too stupid to know what’s “right.”
In today’s reality, some think assenting to the authority of the government in even the smallest of things is giving away their liberties, while others seem all too willing to make snap decisions that limit simple rights in a frighteningly China-esque way. We’re faced with the binary choice of either completely ignoring the government and doing whatever we want or adopting extreme measures of government control over every aspect of our lives. There is no in between. There is no room for common-sense actions like wearing a mask, washing our hands, maintaining safe distances, staying home if you’re sick – simple precautions we can take to protect our more vulnerable citizens. For one side this is far too much to ask, while for the other it’s “do all of those things plus shut down, isolate, and follow our every edict.”
The more the one side pushes, the more the other digs in.
I think Korea’s done a pretty good job at it. They’ve educated their population. They’ve asked for masks, sanitary measures, and social distancing. They’ve limited access to high-risk areas and activities, but they’ve listened to the (more reasonable) people. After the initial wave (in which it was clearly demonstrated that gatherings such as those done by large churches were breeding grounds for the spread of the virus), churches were allowed to open and meet under reasonable conditions. Simple things like signing in, taking temperatures, limiting numbers to under 50 (some may question that limiting gatherings to 50 is “reasonable” for churches with memberships numbering in the tens of thousands, but I touch on this in another post) were being observed by the majority. Generally, people were following the guidance. Our church was meeting twice on Sundays and following the rules without incident.
But then a megachurch pastor in Seoul decided to hold a rally protesting the government’s actions. And the rally was followed shortly by a predictable spike in cases (when you’ve got infections down to low double digits nation-wide and then suddenly, they shoot up to over 400 a day, you can get a good idea where it came from). And now we have a living demonstration of how the thoughtless and extreme actions of a few can affect the lives of everyone else.
I’m not so blind and naïve not to consider this all to be a lie. The government could be making up numbers. They could be inventing cases. They could say that the new infections are coming from the church rally – all so they can control a “troublesome” segment of the population and create their own “brave new world.”
But it would probably be better to examine that which makes more sense. I know men are evil, but it takes some serious conspiracy theorizing to believe a government would severely damage its own economy just to have its way. What purpose does it serve to stress your population, to isolate your vulnerable, to cause widespread discontent and depression? Why not rather encourage a more productive society and then just ride the wave of wealth as you’ve always done in the past? A society under the thumb of an oppressive regime is a society that will someday rise up in revolt. On the contrary though, a society in which all are allowed to produce wealth will also produce a people with the ability to lift each other up. It’s a delicate balance that doesn’t fare too well when one throws a totalitarian wrench into its works.
It takes an evil person to use a crisis as a means to their own ends. It also takes an evil person to stoke distrust and divisiveness as a means of holding power. We need neither right now. We need the person of sound mind who can hold the middle – one who can have the sense to protect the citizens while allowing them to live in freedom. The alternative – to have neither protection nor freedom – is not a sustainable option.