The eternal battle against stupidity

At times, when I was in elementary school, the walk to school was ominous.  Houses along the way would be posted with orange quarantine signs.  Some schoolmates would reside in those houses. I was warned to stay away from those houses.

The diseases that were the occasion for posting such signs were measles, scarlet fever, maybe small pox, diphtheria, and some I don't remember.  But those diseases have been controlled, some eliminated, by vaccines.  Having one of those signs on a house was a great embarrassment.  While intended to designate a germ source for the purpose of limiting contact and disease transmission, it also stigmatized the occupants of the house.  Children who lived in a designated quarantine house were avoided by other children at the instruction of their parents long after the sign was removed.  Humans have a boundless capacity for stupidity and cruelty, and a quarantine was a fine excuse to unleash it all.  

I was reminded of this when I heard some elementary kids in the neighborhood taunt some other kids by calling them covids. Children reflect adult society.  Those neighborhood children reflect the absurdity of adults dividing  themselves over wearing masks.  People are showing up at local government meetings that deal with rules for trying to control Covid-19 and expressing their opposition. They say they aren't afraid of the coronavirus, as they deride those who wear masks, as if disease  can be avoided or combatted with defiance.  

The pandemic has exposed a deeper failing in American life.  In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln prompted the nation toward a life "with malice toward none with charity for all," at which the country has failed spectacularly.   Perhaps fail is not the right word.  It is more that a great number of Americans simply choose otherwise.  They choose malice as a way of life.  And malice is the product of stupidity.  Before a nation can successfully conquer a pandemic, it must first deal with the malice that accepts 190,000 deaths among 6.2 million cases of coronavirus as a normal course of life. It is a matter of malice when people do not take care to possibly spread  a disease to other people.  It is the same kind of behavior as drunk driving.  That means a confrontation with obstinate stupidity, which for many people is a matter of choice, not necessarily a condition at birth.  

Civilization has always had a battle with stupidity.  It has not yet determined which side will win.