Recently, I’ve been taking the subway again and I realize that I’ve forgotten which end of the train stops where in various stations. This used to be common knowledge for me, a frequent subway rider. Get on the front end to be at the right staircase for Canal Street, on the back end to connect to the Lexington lines at Union Square. The same is true of mask-wearing. The first time I walked down the street with no mask on, I was jubilant. I called out to a woman my own age who also wasn’t wearing a mask, “Isn’t it great” and she replied, “Freedom!” But then yesterday, I had a coffee with a friend, got up from the table to order inside and realized I didn’t have my mask with me.
This situation is the same with work. Many are going back to working on a “hybrid” basis: half at home and half in an office. As a college professor, that was my normal working pattern. One day I’d go into teach and be surrounded by students, faculty, and staff; the next I’d either be in an archive or, increasingly, as the internet expanded, at home working alone. I enjoyed the contrast and I think many are also enjoying not having to choose between working either at home or in an office, but having the benefits of both.
It takes time and effort to adjust to our new situation. This is especially true about vaccination. As an historian and of course also as a human being, I am appalled that getting vaccinated has become politicized. I know what happened to non-vaccinated people in the past –- they died. I found it interesting to learn that when the smallpox vaccine was introduced in 18th-century England, there was hardly any disagreement to getting vaccinated. Smallpox killed. If you survived it, you might be blind and almost certainly would be covered with disfiguring pox marks. In contrast, there was quite a bit of opposition to being vaccinated in the United States during this era. What accounts for the difference? I think that since the U.S. was founded on opposition, on not accepting received opinion, that attitude carried over to other areas. Vaccination is one. Gun ownership is another. Despite the constant figures that more people, including children, die from gun violence in the United States than in any other nation, many Americans oppose gun control. I think that this opposition arises at least in part from the belief of many Americans that they want to be able to overthrow the government if that is necessary, just as it was in 1776.
But about vaccination, gun control, and other topics, it’s time to develop a new mentality. We are in a new world, one in which the “old normal” exists only as old habits. We need to create a new normal, which values prevention, intervention, and kindness over force and brutality. This is necessary in so many areas, not just in taking the subway, wearing masks, or vaccination. I think it’s the solution to police work –- neither “defunding” the police nor strengthening it – but rather stressing prevention and intervention over enforcement. These new goals are assuredly worth working for in the years to come.