It’s confession time. I’ve not been wearing a mask. I’ve been into shops, supermarkets, even the little grocer that demands you use hand sanitiser if you want to come in. Okay the last one I barely took two steps in the shop and the guy just got me what I wanted but still I’ll include it. So far nobody has said anything and I suspect they probably won’t either. When I was in Sainsburys they played some rather conflicting messages which actually weren’t conflicting over the tannoy; “It is mandatory to wear face masks in store” followed by “Please be aware of those whose with conditions which may not be immediately obvious”. I did wonder if I should use that as an excuse were someone to challenge me but I can’t help feel it would be slightly disrespectful to people with genuine reasons for not wearing masks. So far I haven’t actually seen a single person not wearing one. I won’t deny I felt like a total pariah and imagined everyone’s eyes were surely on me, judging me. Like everything people were probably too involved in their own worlds to even notice and for this reason loads of maskless faces probably went past me but I couldn’t stop thinking about my own to notice.
This isn’t some protest. This has nothing to do with civil liberties. In truth I find peoples objections for wearing them on those grounds absurd. We live in an economic system which robs us and subtly enslaves us each and every day, and people take umbrage with having to wear a mask. It’s stupid and if you read between the lines you’ll just discover right wing libertarian propaganda. I on the other hand am forgetful and lazy. I don’t have a mask with me and I refuse to buy those cheap ones which break after five minutes and end up in a landfill. There was talk about six weeks ago of the environmental damage already obvious from one use face masks and PPE but that seems to have been brushed under the already bulging carpet. It always comes down to money, profit and ease but why can’t people just be persuaded to spend the same amount of money on one reusuable mask as they do one pack of ten ultimately disposable ones. We’re unable to use a washing machine and look after ourselves again. And none of that even goes into the socioeconomic arguments of how something deemed mandatory with added stigma should never cost money, even if just three pounds.
I actually have a face mask. A friend gave me an old sleeve of a tshirt and it works perfectly. When I finally remember to take it with me I’ll just use this. At the same time while I appreciate their use I find it frustrating that it has taken us six months to make it some kind of necessity. In those six months the virus was rampant and we start using them once it has died down. There will be reasons for this such as prioritising their use for nurses but with such flip flopping of advice, delays in making decisions and even once a decision was made, not having it come into affect until two weeks later; it is understandable why people are sceptical or just simply confused.
I am an ignorant arsehole for not wearing one despite the fact it makes total sense that they must help slow the spread of this virus. Surely that is undeniable even if it is minuscule. There is also a part of me that continues to feel it a necessity not to do something if the norm is to do it through fear of the wrath of my vigilante peers. It isn’t an attack upon my liberties to have to wear one but it does feel that just ever so slightly if I’m being judged by people, or guiltily imagining I am, by people who a week ago didn’t wear a mask but now do because of some government law that isn’t actually a law, it’s all about the wording with this lot, that I just want to give the finger to them all. At the same time there’s probably an argument for me to just grow up and wear a mask because the rest of this nonsense is all in my head and to wear one may just help protect someone I care about or someone somebody else cares about. It shouldn’t be so difficult really. But it still is, even though I actually don’t care either way whether I wear one or not. Maybe I should just go find that sleeve mask and be done with it. Let’s not have a series of pieces which just devolve into me having an argument with myself and result in nothing bar hypocrisy and flawed rationale on both sides. Let’s be honest, nobodies right and everybody’s wrong.
Observations and Misunderstandings 