007 - Lockdown language and perceptions
Mar 31, 2021 · 2 minute readTags: 100DaysToOffload
Words: 328
There's something very interesting in the language around the behaviour changes asked from society and thus the perceptions that seem to circulate around it.
There's something very interesting in the language around the behaviour changes asked from society and thus the perceptions that seem to circulate around it.
My TL/DR; is that most people seem to think that lockdown is something that is being done to them by the state.
The language is almost all negative, and codified in a sense of punitive restrictions. Lockdown, whose other usage is in gaols (sorry, jails) to indicate locking down the prison, say, during a riot. Restrictions is another loaded term, implying our freedom is at risk. And then, of course, there is the usage of the "when we will be free again after lockdown ends".
At every point, there is this idea that the state ("they") are imposing restrictions on "us", with the implication that it is "their" fault, and we are thus unwilling recipients of the situations. At least, this is how it seems mostly to be framed.
This is very much a child-like view of the relationship between the people and an over-arching state, rather than a grown-up view of a society and its government.
A grown up, mature, society would approach it as: we are (still) in a public health crisis, and as a society we have chosen to protect the vulnerable by taking, and participating, in sensible measures to drive down the spread of a deadly virus, and thus, as quickly as possible, return to normal. These measures are the voluntary recognition that wearing masks, washing our hands, minimising social interaction in all spheres of our lives, and having the vaccination as soon as we are able, are all positive choices we make to participate in the solution to end the pandemic.
Or we are unwilling children being told by our parents (the government) to eat our greens, but we only do so begrudgingly. But that would be stupid, wouldn't it?
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