So, 2020 is finally over: Let’s review. We shopped online for masks. We baked bread. We hoped for our colleagues’ pets to pop up onscreen during too-long Zoom meetings.
And we experienced most of the important events of the day through our screens, as the lockdown dragged on, and on, and on.
The principle of “Hanlon’s Razor” holds that we shouldn’t credit malice for actions that can be explained by incompetence or stupidity, but in Florida this year, sometimes it was tough to tell the difference.
As other countries and states worked together to flatten the curve and return to something approaching normality, those who scrupulously observed safety protocols watched helplessly as those who refused to packed restaurants and bars, attended weddings and family get-togethers, and generally partied Florida into a COVID Petri dish.
Was it malice, stupidity, or a little bit of both? We can’t know, but in the meantime, our quarantine has stretched to nine months with no assured end in sight.
Human contact is a very real need. But the ethical truth is that none of us will be free of the virus and its constraints until all of us are free of it.