Don't be like that

The obvious follow-up to yesterday's post would be to focus the director spotlight on John Singleton, but after two failed attempts to record Poetic Justice it has become personal, and I am going to watch that movie.

Also, I really need to write about Corona virus. That is partly because of things I am seeing in the media now, and also because of a book I just read: Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern Eating in the Early Twentieth Century by Helen Zoe Veit.

During World War I the United States government was sending food to Europe as part of relief efforts. Certain foods were prioritized based partly on nutritional value but largely on how well they shipped. Those foods included beef, pork, and white flour. To keep supplies available, the government requested that citizens used less of those foods. They encouraged more eating of fish and poultry, and more use of cornmeal and potatoes, for example. A lot of what we think of as traditional foods, like meat-and-potatoes in the heartland and casseroles and name brand canned foods really took off here.

That information could be interesting on its own. A lot of the dietary advice was given through extension services, and that resonated for me because I have taught community classes on food safety and how to prepare different foods through extension programs, eighty years later. Cool! However, where I found the book really relevant is how stupidly awful some people were, and how.

For example, there was a recommendation from one non-government source to go through dishwater and salvage left behind morsels. How disgusting that sounds should be reason enough against it, but also, logically, if there is anyone who is leaving that much food on their plates, the real need is instruction on washing dishes. Scrape your dishes first. It will keep the water clean longer so you wash better. The other idea doesn't even make sense.

That is an extreme example of individuals going overboard. There were women who made uniforms, and women who requested stronger guidelines from the agency, because they just didn't feel secure enough, and maybe the voluntary elements weren't good enough, which may be why some people felt the need to police their neighbors, because other people cannot be trusted.

So, when healthcare workers and medically fragile people can't find masks because people who don't need them have snapped them all up, that sounds kind of familiar. The main recommendation has been hand washing all along. It kind of makes sense that people also want to stock up on hand sanitizer, because you aren't always at a sink, but I suspect that the bare supermarket shelves are not reflecting an informed or reasonable response.

It's that urge to police other people that worries me most. I have heard -- but cannot verify -- that some public officials are encouraging the public to pressure anyone coughing into leaving public spaces. (A good thread on that is linked below.)

https://twitter.com/kristinrawls/status/1235937356588486667


There is a lot to be said for using common sense and not going out in public if you are feeling ill. There are also many issues about feasibility, and people being able to afford to do so, but let's leave that aside for now. There are many other reasons you might cough. Allergies trigger asthma for a lot of people, and coughing can be a symptom. Someone might have swallowed something wrong and need to clear it out. Maybe courteously checking on people can be okay, but I worry more about things like this happening:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/coronavirus-racism-attack-london

Did I mention that there were many examples of appalling racism in the Modern Food book? There were.

Because of all of this, I have some real concerns about our ability to manage this using logic and intelligence in a manner that actually promotes the common welfare. I mean, I guess now I understand better that people were also terrible jerks during World War I, and the accompanying Great Influenza did not cause society to collapse, but while Woodrow Wilson was still pretty racist he was in many ways more competent than the current president, and things like that can matter.

So that's a concern. I want to write one related thing on the preparedness blog Sunday, and a different related thing here Monday.