Franklin meets the pandemic…

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Clint

One of American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin’s more famous quotes goes as such:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I’ve often heard the first part paraphrased as “a little liberty” which doesn’t leave much wriggle room versus “essential liberty.” Then you end up looking into it further and find out we mostly use it way out of its original context.

I can’t help but wonder if Franklin ever had to live through a global pandemic? Then again, now that I’ve looked up the quote again for this blog it seems that we mostly use it out of its intended context, anyhow. It sounds great as an anti-tyranny statement but was originally mostly about making sure certain rich people paid their taxes.

And even if we apply it to its 20th/21st Century context, well, there’s still some room for soul-searching as to why being asked to wear a face mask is giving up an “essential Liberty.” Especially now that the worst is (predictably) coming true and America’s laissez-faire attitude towards Covid-19 is causing its resurgence in a big way.

We shouldn’t have rushed to reopen so soon, and it’s perhaps even more tragic that here in California all signs were that we were getting it under control and then we had to go and screw it up right along with the administrations that never seemed to take it seriously at all. Now everything’s getting shut down again but according to the CDC, it’s too late.

At very least I don’t honestly know how anyone thought reopening bars was a workable idea. We still know comparatively little about how the disease operates but we do know that the most surefire scenario for contracting it is to be in an enclosed area with a lot of people for an an hour or two, particularly if they’re doing something like singing or shouting and aren’t wearing masks so that their exhalations flow free. That humid feeling you get in crowded nightclubs and bars? That’s human breath and sweat in the air. And the whole “be cautious and observe social distancing” protocol? That’s not going to survive much past a few drinks.

I’m not laying all the blame at the door of the far right, either. They might be the most vocal figurehead for denial and you’ve got some really fringe elements that apparently consider not spitting on the produce aisle in the supermarket an unforgivable affront to their freedom, but there has been plenty of stupid to go around on all points of the political spectrum. People in my own family that I would hardly describe as ragingly conservative have been getting manicures and haircuts. It’s more than disappointing to me, it legitimately terrifies me for their safety, no matter how otherwise careful they assure me they’re being.

I get it, to a point. I’ve always hated wearing a mask, even though I’ve suffered from allergies all my life. They’re uncomfortable and they tend to fog up my glasses. But you can breathe in them. Wearing one isn’t going to weaken your immune system from “disuse,” which is an actual statement I’ve heard people say in all seriousness. Trust me, we’re filthy creatures, our immune systems are constantly getting a workout whether or not we’re letting people cough in our faces. It’s such a little thing, and yet we can’t even do that much? If ever there was a time to give up a little liberty for some temporary safety, this was it. I’m past done with anyone downplaying the threat or insisting the “cure is worse than the disease” or any of that hogwash.

Anyhow, if ever I found the trope far-fetched of the guy hiding his zombie bite from the other survivors, putting everyone at risk because he figured nah, he won’t really be affected despite all observation to the contrary… here we are with a scenario where the worst that happens isn’t that you get shot in the head or exiled, you just get asked to leave the store.

Well, the worst that happens is you contribute to the spread of a deadly pandemic America could have stopped in its tracks like New Zealand, South Korea, and other countries managed to. As the ICU beds fill up, are we ready to admit we have a problem, and that the curve has not, in fact, flattened? Or will this weekend’s 4th of July celebrations be Memorial Day all over again?

For my part, I’ll be celebrating my liberty to turn down the BBQ invites. And I’m pretty sure that in these circumstances, Franklin would’ve worn a mask.

2 thoughts on “Franklin meets the pandemic…”

  1. Honzinator

    Franklin was there for some smallpox outbreaks, and when the bad malaria hit the Colonies for the first time.
    No global pandemics back then because no air travel, though siphylis made it from The New World to coastal China in a bout 20 years.
    On the plus side, during the Yank’s occupation of Montreal, he was the only really popular American … probably because he wasn’t a Yankee or a New Yorker, and behaved rather differently towards independence-minded Quebecois.

  2. Deoxy

    We have literally had years where the per capita losses from *the regular old flu* were worse than this, and that’s since WWII, so I’m not counting the Spanish Flu. Heck, we lost 60,000 to the regular old flu 2 winters ago (well, 3 now), and nobody even *noticed*.

    This is “a bad flu”, and everyone is acting like it’s the end of the universe. The actual numbers were available *in February*, even the CDC has finally caught up with them now, and there is no excuse for this ridiculous fear-mongering.

    Not to mention that the whole “stay at home and close your business unless you are protesting” thing shows that the “experts” themselves actually don’t actually believe this is at all serious, either.

    “Wearing one isn’t going to weaken your immune system from “disuse,” which is an actual statement I’ve heard people say in all seriousness.”

    Not from “disuse”, no. But in the actual studies we have on masks (using the regular flu, since this one is too new), the only masks that show **any** level of effectiveness *also* show both significant risk of lowered blood oxygen level (which lowers the body’s ability to fight disease) and impaired lung function (which lowers the body’s ability to fight respiratory disease).

    There are many reasons that the medical community’s advice on masks has bounced all over the place over the years, some good and some bad, but one of the good ones is that the actual science doesn’t actually give a strong answer one way or the other, in terms of day-to-day wearing. The strong claims made one way or the other on masks *are scientifically unsupportable*. Essentially, they are *arbitrary*, which is one of the reasons that the “official” advice can bounce around so far and so easily.

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