This past Tuesday Texas Governor Greg Abbott Tweeted that businesses throughout the Lone Star state will be permitted to open to full capacity, and the state-wide face mask-wearing mandate has ended. Abbott then sent a second tweet where he presented several stats to support his decision. He ended this tweet with, "All Texans know the safe practices."
This sentence resonated with me.
For a few moments, I set aside the political rhetoric that comes to mind when I think of Texas, the third-most-populous U.S. state, being a Republican bastion sitting on the eastern end of the U.S. Bible Belt. I took "All Texans know the safe practices." at face value — Abbott decided to treat Texans as adults and give Texans back their freedom to choose. Is this not good? Isn't freedom of choice what everyone wants?
Three unequivocal facts when it comes to taking preventative measures to stem the spreading of the coronavirus or any virus:
Wear a face mask
Social distance
Wash your hands.
Nobody reading this doesn't know these facts — this is common knowledge. So why is so much government intervention needed to get adults to adhere to these 3 simple facts? In 2021 many people need the government to tell them to do what they know is right.
As expected, Abbott's Tweets created lots of negative fallout. It seems Texans are scared to allow their fellow Texans to have the freedom to choose how they want to live with COVID.
COVID has bubbled up how much people rely on the government to engineer the population's behaviour. Since the onset of COVID, Canadians have looked to their political leaders to create 'nanny state' policies to protect them.
Abbott isn't telling Texans they can't wear a face mask, or they must open their business, or just go out in public, or must not social distance. He's giving Texans a choice whether to do so. In the next few weeks, Texas will be a telling social experiment.
Sense of entitlement has mudded the question of responsibility and blame when it comes to COVID. Last March, in the heat of panic, we abandoned all our prior behaviours surrounding communicable diseases. We replaced them with a propaganda-driven "new morality." This sleight of hands has resulted in forgoing personal responsibility for our own health. Instead, we now blame those who refuse to alter their lives to "protect" us for putting us at risk.
There's no shortage of people who will tell you how to live, what to value and believe in, what your allegiances should be. Many want to design other people's lives rather than their own and expect the government to do it for them.
As a society, we haven't evolved to the point where all individuals care enough to understand how their decisions have communal consequences and act accordingly. Whether it's adding to our planet's pollution (littering, living a wasteful lifestyle), texting while driving, not paying your fair share of taxes or not voting — everything you and I do has social cause and effect.
Our actions have far-reaching consequences to those around us, our immediate community and beyond.
It's never about government policies — it's about a lack of individual commitment to the common good. It's easy to blame the government and ignore your behaviour and that of your family, friends, and neighbours because you value those relationships over the common good.
On some level, I believe everyone is doing the best they know-how with their current level of knowledge, beliefs, and self-awareness. However, I'm not enough of a romantic to not believe many people want what's best for themselves, at everyone else's expense. Judging by the self-centred actions I see daily, it wouldn't be a stretch to say a large percentage of the population lives by the mantra, 'Every man for himself.'
It saddens me to think that western civilization has yet to develop the collective maturity of comprehending we're all in this thing called life, as brief as it is, together. Why can't so many people not grow up, become adults, and understand this? It'll be interesting to see how Texans behave now that they're being treated like adults and given back their freedom of choice.
Nick Kossovan is the Customer Service Professionals Network’s director of social media.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
