Land of the free
Some sort of malaise has definitely set in. I've seen it called quarantine fatigue - usually in the context of a headline along the lines of 'How to beat quarantine fatigue'. The concern is that people suffering from quarantine will break the stay-home orders. Data is showing that people are on the move. In the US there were 30% more trips last week even in states that had not eased up on restrictions.
Rather than itching to get out and do stuff, the symptoms of quarantine fatigue in our family seem to be literally fatigue - everyone is running on empty.
So that is excuse #1 for why I haven't been writing Silly Valley. The second excuse is that I have actually been writing - just not Silly Valley. ThingTwo had a big writing assignment due May 4 - the culmination of months of learning about the American Revolution. She had to write a ~20 page four-chapter book. One chapter summarizing the war, one explaining an event of her choice in detail, one chapter was a story from the perspective of someone at the event, and an 'opinion piece' about why her event was important.
Slight problem. Turned out all her notes she'd been taking over the last four months were still at school. We kept the kids home on what turned out to be the last day of school so she didn't get a chance to empty out her desk. ThingTwo had been panicking quietly about this for a few weeks and finally, with only about a quarter the book written, she told me she just couldn't see how she would finish on time! Of course, I felt terribly guilty for not realizing her predicament sooner.
After quite a lot of despair (hers, mine, even Pepper was miserable) and argy bargy, we came up with a plan. I gave her a one-time pandemic-panic-pass: she could dictate everything she knew about the war and her special event - the Boston Tea Party - and I would transcribe exactly what she said. She would then edit and augment as necessary.
In case you don't know what happened at the Boston Tea Party, here is ThingTwo's summary of events:
"December 16, 1773 was when this tea party happened. This was no ordinary tea party or a boycott but even better, the colonists did not just refuse to buy tea, they dumped it into the ocean.
The King introduced the Tea Act in 1773 to make people buy tea from a company called the East India Company. The tea was cheaper but had a tax on it. The colonists did not want to buy only this tea and they were angry about the tax so they stopped buying the tea. This is called a boycott. But they did something more.
Tea was sent around the world by the British in ships. In November 1773 three ships came to Boston Harbor. The ships had tea on them. A lot of people protested the ships coming to the dock area. On the night of December 16, 1773 a group called the Sons of Liberty got dressed up like Mohawk Indians and started going on the British ships in Boston Harbor. About 150 people split up into three groups because there were three ships. Each group had a leader. Hundreds of people watched from the dock. The Sons of Liberty did not want to ruin the crates so they just untopped the crates and the tea flew out into the river. About 92,000 pounds of tea was dumped into the river. This event is called the Boston Tea Party. It showed King George that the colonists were tough!"
Against the backdrop of lockdown protests around the US and the Trump tweets to 'LIBERATE Minnesota! LIBERATE Michigan! LIBERATE Virginia!' reading the fifth grade version of the American Revolution took on a disturbing significance.
So much of the modern American psyche stems from the legends that surround those turbulent revolutionary times. The hard-won values at the core of American society, such as life, liberty, the right to assemble, to a trial by jury, to privacy, all stem from years protesting and fighting an oppressive British rule.
All American fifth graders learn about the American revolution. ThingTwo's textbook mainly focuses on the dramatic events that certainly entrance ten and eleven year olds, such as the tarring and feathering of tax collectors, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and Paul Revere's ride through the night ("The British are coming! The British are coming!") I was impressed to see that ThingTwo's Californian hippy teacher also led discussions on whether the end always justifies the means, comparing and contrasting the diplomatic petitions that were made through official channels to the British Parliament and King with the sometimes violent protests of underground rebel organizations. ThingTwo told me that "the Sons of Liberty liked to exaggerate events to rile people up to get them to care about independence. Like the Boston Massacre - only three people died and three more later, so can you really call that a massacre?"
As we googled the subject we found plenty of controversy around whether it is right to glorify leaders of the Colonial underground such as Sam Adams and Paul Revere who had a talent for populist propaganda and were not averse to inciting mob violence.
Sound familiar?
Just hearing the words Boston Tea Party got me thinking about the recent political use of 'tea party' in America. Before the Trump campaign had such success with his populist right-wing messaging, there was the 2009 Tea Party movement. This ultra-conservative and libertarian grass-roots movement called for reductions in government size, spending, and taxes as a push back against President Obama's liberal agenda, as well as perceived failures by the 'establishment' Republican Party. Seeing the success of the movement, the Republican Party gradually embraced the Tea Party mentality, and though the Tea Party itself has faded, Trump continues to brandish the same politics of anger.
Commentators are likening the current anti-lockdown protests to early Tea Party events, and it turns out it is not surprising since many of the lock-down protests are being coordinated by the very same people - the founding members of the Tea Party. On the face of it the protests are being framed as a desperate reaction to job losses, to poverty, to the recession, but one of the organizers said, "It's all political." We are in an election year after all.
Back in April, when lockdown protests started around the country, comedian Jimmy Kimmel said, "They seem to fight hardest for the things that will kill them. They want freedom to gather in large groups during an epidemic, they want guns, they want pollution." In 1775, during a debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses about whether to go to war with Britain, Patrick Henry proposed creating an armed Virginian militia. When someone said he was proposing a trade in death, Henry famously replied, "I know not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Did he imagine his words would be used in 2020 by a screaming woman outside a Baskin Robbins ice cream store to protest a state-wide shelter-in-place order during a life-threatening pandemic?
How did the colonial fight for independence from an overseas oppressor transform into such a hatred for any form of government oversight, be it local, state, or federal? How did the desire for liberty and civil rights mutate into an obsession with self-determination coupled with a deep mistrust for evidence-based decision making, for science, for any kind of expert opinion?
Perhaps some explanation came from ThingTwo's conclusions about the Boston Tea Party. As I took dictation for the last chapter, she gave her opinion about why the Boston Tea Party was important. "It showed that sometimes a small group of people can make something change. Do you see anything in the world today that you could try to change?"
ThingTwo's conclusion reminded me of Margaret Mead's famous quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
It is a quote I've always found powerful, and believe to be true. Under normal circumstances I would support the right to protest, even if I fundamentally disagreed with the cause.
But the nature of the pandemic, of an airborne deadly respiratory disease, twists everything. Give me liberty or death? Can those protesters not see that their liberty, that even the act of freely assembling to protest could mean death for a health worker? Or for themselves? How can they not see that? I hate to think of people as just plain... selfish... or... stupid...
Maybe a more diplomatic explanation would be to say that some proportion of the nation gets stuck in a fifth-grade understanding of the revolution: a romantic identification with the rabble rousers rather than the government-builders who carefully engineered the freedom that followed.
I don't doubt that the protesters feel that they have a historical imperative to protest infringements of their freedoms. But it is sad to see the protesters (misguided) zeal being exploited so dangerously for political purposes. It makes me even more grateful for ThingTwo's fifth grade teacher who introduced critical thinking around propaganda vs. truth.
Since I started writing this post a number of states have been reopening to various degrees. Some are reopening for political reasons, some are following science-based guidelines. California is following a science based strategy for reopening and today things changed a little - more businesses are being allowed to open, some parks are opening up. As I look at the graphs that still show the number of coronavirus cases on the rise to varying degrees in all states, it all feels too soon. I am also reminded of another quote I read recently from the late BBC reporter Alistair Cooke, famous for his long-running weekly 'Letter from America'. He wrote, "I can only recall the saying of a wise Frenchman that 'liberty is the luxury of self-discipline.' Historically those peoples that did not discipline themselves had discipline thrust on them from the outside."
Personally, during a pandemic, it turns out I really don't mind having 'discipline thrust on [me] from the outside.' But in this land of the free, I suppose I just have to hope that, as people start to get the liberty they so desire, the associated 'luxury of self-discipline' prevails and we can all stay well.
So much of the modern American psyche stems from the legends that surround those turbulent revolutionary times. The hard-won values at the core of American society, such as life, liberty, the right to assemble, to a trial by jury, to privacy, all stem from years protesting and fighting an oppressive British rule.
All American fifth graders learn about the American revolution. ThingTwo's textbook mainly focuses on the dramatic events that certainly entrance ten and eleven year olds, such as the tarring and feathering of tax collectors, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and Paul Revere's ride through the night ("The British are coming! The British are coming!") I was impressed to see that ThingTwo's Californian hippy teacher also led discussions on whether the end always justifies the means, comparing and contrasting the diplomatic petitions that were made through official channels to the British Parliament and King with the sometimes violent protests of underground rebel organizations. ThingTwo told me that "the Sons of Liberty liked to exaggerate events to rile people up to get them to care about independence. Like the Boston Massacre - only three people died and three more later, so can you really call that a massacre?"
As we googled the subject we found plenty of controversy around whether it is right to glorify leaders of the Colonial underground such as Sam Adams and Paul Revere who had a talent for populist propaganda and were not averse to inciting mob violence.
Sound familiar?
Just hearing the words Boston Tea Party got me thinking about the recent political use of 'tea party' in America. Before the Trump campaign had such success with his populist right-wing messaging, there was the 2009 Tea Party movement. This ultra-conservative and libertarian grass-roots movement called for reductions in government size, spending, and taxes as a push back against President Obama's liberal agenda, as well as perceived failures by the 'establishment' Republican Party. Seeing the success of the movement, the Republican Party gradually embraced the Tea Party mentality, and though the Tea Party itself has faded, Trump continues to brandish the same politics of anger.
Commentators are likening the current anti-lockdown protests to early Tea Party events, and it turns out it is not surprising since many of the lock-down protests are being coordinated by the very same people - the founding members of the Tea Party. On the face of it the protests are being framed as a desperate reaction to job losses, to poverty, to the recession, but one of the organizers said, "It's all political." We are in an election year after all.
Back in April, when lockdown protests started around the country, comedian Jimmy Kimmel said, "They seem to fight hardest for the things that will kill them. They want freedom to gather in large groups during an epidemic, they want guns, they want pollution." In 1775, during a debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses about whether to go to war with Britain, Patrick Henry proposed creating an armed Virginian militia. When someone said he was proposing a trade in death, Henry famously replied, "I know not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Did he imagine his words would be used in 2020 by a screaming woman outside a Baskin Robbins ice cream store to protest a state-wide shelter-in-place order during a life-threatening pandemic?
How did the colonial fight for independence from an overseas oppressor transform into such a hatred for any form of government oversight, be it local, state, or federal? How did the desire for liberty and civil rights mutate into an obsession with self-determination coupled with a deep mistrust for evidence-based decision making, for science, for any kind of expert opinion?
Perhaps some explanation came from ThingTwo's conclusions about the Boston Tea Party. As I took dictation for the last chapter, she gave her opinion about why the Boston Tea Party was important. "It showed that sometimes a small group of people can make something change. Do you see anything in the world today that you could try to change?"
ThingTwo's conclusion reminded me of Margaret Mead's famous quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
It is a quote I've always found powerful, and believe to be true. Under normal circumstances I would support the right to protest, even if I fundamentally disagreed with the cause.
But the nature of the pandemic, of an airborne deadly respiratory disease, twists everything. Give me liberty or death? Can those protesters not see that their liberty, that even the act of freely assembling to protest could mean death for a health worker? Or for themselves? How can they not see that? I hate to think of people as just plain... selfish... or... stupid...
Maybe a more diplomatic explanation would be to say that some proportion of the nation gets stuck in a fifth-grade understanding of the revolution: a romantic identification with the rabble rousers rather than the government-builders who carefully engineered the freedom that followed.
I don't doubt that the protesters feel that they have a historical imperative to protest infringements of their freedoms. But it is sad to see the protesters (misguided) zeal being exploited so dangerously for political purposes. It makes me even more grateful for ThingTwo's fifth grade teacher who introduced critical thinking around propaganda vs. truth.
Since I started writing this post a number of states have been reopening to various degrees. Some are reopening for political reasons, some are following science-based guidelines. California is following a science based strategy for reopening and today things changed a little - more businesses are being allowed to open, some parks are opening up. As I look at the graphs that still show the number of coronavirus cases on the rise to varying degrees in all states, it all feels too soon. I am also reminded of another quote I read recently from the late BBC reporter Alistair Cooke, famous for his long-running weekly 'Letter from America'. He wrote, "I can only recall the saying of a wise Frenchman that 'liberty is the luxury of self-discipline.' Historically those peoples that did not discipline themselves had discipline thrust on them from the outside."
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