Where to start a series of misanthropic articles? Of course, from the current. Do people who sneeze next to you in an elevator annoy you? And what about colleagues who, even before quarantine, came to work with a temperature of over forty and smearing snot, because they don’t want to take sick leave? They annoy me. Let’s discuss? Not without a psychologist, of course.
On the one hand, I understand everything. In my entire adult life – and it’s already been quite a long one, you know – I’ve taken official sick leave once. And that was when I was in the hospital. The rest of the time I just work from home (fortunately, the profession allows this), lying under the covers in an embrace with a laptop and medicines.
Because we all know how it works: he took sick leave and received a meager salary. What about paying for a loan? What about buying groceries? And pay utilities? But who cares, he fell ill – it’s his own fault. In society in general, a person is always to blame (but this is a topic for a separate column).
On the other hand, I sincerely do not understand why I am in danger because of the financial problems of another person? Or someone’s elderly parents? Or a pregnant neighbor? Or your security guard at work, whose salary is less than the minimum wage, and who has four children at home? And the security guard, mind you, cannot work remotely. Whereas many sick workaholics can. I can. And I always use it, even if I just have a little tickle in my throat.
Paranoia, you say? Well, perhaps. But, as they say, God saves the safe. And he also protects everyone with whom this cherished person chose not to contact, staying at home.
Every time this sufferer gets sick, she pretends to be a brave little hero.
I have one friend. She is very concerned about her health. Quivering in the sense that she describes every sneeze, every scratch from a cat, every slightly twisted leg and every snot in all social networks as a real drama.
Poor girl, a compassionate Buddhist or neophyte of pop psychology would think. Perhaps she was so disliked as a child. I want to hug and cry. Yes? Nothing like this.
Would you like to be more tactful? – use non-verbal methods of influence. Because every time this sufferer gets sick, she pretends to be a little brave hero who opposes a terrible cruel world, and in spite of this terrible and cruel world she is – what? That’s right, go to work. Or to a concert. Or to the movies. Or for a manicure.
With fever, cough and green snot. Throwing myself in front of this antipyretic, spraying it into the nose so that the flow from the nose is not so noticeable.
Think she can’t work from home? Maybe. She was allowed. Several times she was even forcibly sent home from the office in a sick condition. But she is a proud little extrovert, for whom it is vital to communicate with people, to take selfies at the workplace, so that everyone is convinced that she is strong and brave, no illness will stop her!
Well, it’s simply impossible to live a week without a manicure and concerts – “it’s all to know,” as the Dothraki girls from the Game of Thrones series used to say. Well, now, in quarantine, we “know everything” that we can do without it for months. Although I miss bright red manicure like few others. But I digress again.
So, this acquaintance terribly, monstrously, simply unimaginably annoys me. I want to take her by the scruff of the neck and give her a good shake. Because well, my, well, how is it possible? Don’t feel sorry for yourself – have pity on others! Stay at home until you get better! Why are you going somewhere and infecting a hundred or two more people along the way with your bacilli?
Do you think that those whom you infected by your stupidity and flagrant irresponsibility will then be cool to lie in intensive care?
The problem is that people like this friend of mine are legion. These are people who are sure that their pneumonia is completely non-covid, because a friend told them that the symptoms are different there. People who believe that if they wrap their virus-spewing mouth with a knitted scarf, it will protect others from infection. People who are sure that ordering food delivery is not as cool and fun as walking through the spring city to the supermarket, taking a picture of blooming lilacs for Instagram along the way.
Of course, not so cool. And not so much fun. And I just want to ask these people: do you think that those whom you infected through your stupidity and blatant irresponsibility will then be cool to lie in intensive care? Or sit at home in quarantine with round-the-clock monitoring? Or shake for your loved ones who ended up in the hospital because of you?
And if we are talking about ordinary, “non-quarantine” times, will it be fun for your colleagues to be treated and take sick leave because of you? Is it your fault? How do you generally sleep at night? I really hope not. And if the norms, then with all my heart I send you rays, guess what.
I therefore take my leave, with dislike, your Misanthrope.
Battles on the topic “to go out into the world sick or not” exist in our society even without the topic of a pandemic
With the coronavirus, everything is both complicated and simple. Now we are witnessing a truly unique phenomenon, how in a matter of hours a person who is not noticed at all in any immoral acts becomes an outcast because he turned out to be covid-positive.
The stigmatization of these people reaches some unheard of proportions. Why? The answer is quite simple and understandable: instead of searching for abstract reasons that led to the current state of things, it is much easier for consciousness to “appoint” the guilty person who turned up so well.
And then the beloved turns on, everyone has their own reaction to stress. One of the most common is panic, which quickly develops into defensive anger and aggression. They are abundantly fed by social networks, where the ratio of reliable and absolutely delusional information about the virus is about 10% versus 90%.
Do not forget also about the forced isolation, which exposed the problems in many families – this leaves practically no chance for a tolerant attitude towards the sick.
By the way, it is this avalanche of false information that gives rise to such characters as in the Misanthrope column. The symptoms do not match – that’s it, the mind immediately clings to this opportunity to turn on the mechanism of denial. In the end, it’s so nice to believe that “this won’t happen to me,” so the consciousness tries to keep the defense to the last.
But let’s separate the wheat from the chaff. Perhaps I will surprise someone, but battles on the topic “to go out into the world sick or not” exist in our society even without the topic of a pandemic.
This is really an unmotivated risk and an irresponsible attitude towards others.
Everything is simple. For years, even decades, fierce debates have been going on (and with the advent of instant messengers – just bloody) on the topic: “Why does Anna bring her child to the garden with snot? After that, my Misha sits down at home for three weeks.
And the arguments, in general, are armor-piercing on both sides. Anna has a strict and not very adequate boss, who, during the second sick leave in a year, not only hints, but openly sings a song with a refrain about “of her own free will” under her breath.
Anna also has a number of financial obligations. And the husband is not an oligarch. And you can perfectly understand why her child is in the garden with snot. He doesn’t have a temperature (by the way, in some European countries, even a temperature of about 37,5 is not a reason not to visit the kindergarten).
The indignant mother can also be understood – why, due to Anna’s difficulties, is she forced to buy more drops for Misha, put him home and deprive him of his favorite football activities?
A clash of interests that in our society is almost impossible to resolve at the moment. Anna would be happy to respect other parents and children, but respect in the store is not accepted as payment …
But going to concerts, salons and other “not very obligatory” institutions cannot be justified, and I don’t want to. This is really an unmotivated risk and an irresponsible attitude towards others, whether there is a pandemic or not. Even one person who falls ill because of someone’s irresponsibility is already bad. And bravery has nothing to do with it.