Todd Hayen
Aren’t you tired becoming aware of masks? Mask-talk is practically as common as Hitler-talk. Well, if the shoe fits … Just because we are worn out hearing about appropriate things to discuss, does not imply they need to not be discussed. A minimum of that is how I see it. Certainly.
Mask-talk might be irritatingly worn thin, however seeing a mask on the street still makes my blood boil– a lot more so than it used to. It has become a symbol of ignorance to me if seen in locations that do not need it, and a symbol of compliance and apathy when in locations that do require it, such as medical facilities here in Canada. But as disgraceful as it is to admit, I am guilty of throwing the damn thing on when visiting my urologist, after being told I would have to leave if I didn’t.
Can you believe that? Me? Complying?
There are 2 kinds of “non-compliers,” one complies from a place of ignorance, a location of catching authority since that is the “ideal thing to do.” The other complies when they understand the fact but comply since it is just excessive problem not to, does not want to make a scene, and knows at this moment that a person individual standing up and dealing with the repercussions isn’t going to total up to a hill of beans. In other words, being a coward.
Heard that one previously, eh? One might ask, “which is worse?”
The 2nd reason to comply is still no excellent reason, and I concern you here completely exposed and deeply ashamed. However … I wore a PHONY MASK. Despite the fact that makes no public statement, it does make me feel mischievously pleased. Mind you, I do not use masks anywhere else, public or personal– only in medical facilities (albeit phony, however not even that any longer).
I make this difference because, in the context of this short article, it is an essential one to make. I believe the person who uses the mask for the 2nd factor mentioned above, is not stabbing humankind in the eye with an ice pick. There will come a time when those reasons will no longer fly, and wearing a mask, even when required, will be an effective betrayal to be prevented. I do not think we are at that point now.
Some may disagree with this reasoning, but the mask isn’t the problem, it is the factor we use them that is. There is also a little bit of rationale in using masks in a medical center. A little bit.
I do not think we will win this war allowing ourselves to be slaughtered with a gatling gun when we refuse to use a mask. If we can get away with persecution and punishment by pretending to follow the guidelines, then so be it. Revolutionaries have done this in the early days of a transformation for centuries. There are more reliable ways to combat these injustices then getting kicked out of a doctor’s office due to the fact that you refuse to use a mask.
I can clearly see the opposite of this argument. I would stand and applaud anyone who declines to comply and is then humiliatingly gotten rid of from the premises. More power to them; such a person is a hero. But I likewise at the very same time praise the person who is battling this battle in other methods and chooses to “pretend” to follow the rules in order to get medical care if it is needed (ala a fake mask!). However, for me personally, I am on the fence. And I may slip down to the other side of it soon enough and make a phenomenon of myself in the near future by informing the receptionist at the medical facility they can take their mask and shove it.
I sat down in the waiting space at my urologist’s office with my fake mask on and sensation rather smug, “I showed them,” I said to myself. Yeah, sure, whatever. My urologist is pretty cool– young, ambitious, a great surgeon (at least he appeared that method to me when he cut out a substantial stone from my kidney a couple of years ago). I fancy myself a decent judge of character and summed him up as one who would believe all this mask crap was a farce. I was mask-less when he came into the little test space; it was simply the 2 people. He had a mask on.
“You can take that off,” I said, “don’t keep it on because of me.” He took a seat and made no motion to remove it.
“You don’t really think that does any good, do you?” I stated after an awkward time out. He then released into the speech the sheep-folks give when handling a client or patient who suggests they believe in all that conspiracy hoopla out there. He wanted to remain type of neutral, which was not a success. It was obvious.
I stopped talking. However left the phony mask in my hand, off of my face. I was devastated. “Of all people,” I thought. This is really sad.
I had no way to know if he was simply toeing the company line or seriously thought in his tirade. These medical professionals have been threatened beyond comprehension to walk the straight and narrow, and most likely do not believe the mask thing is truly a hill to pass away on. I guess I am one of them myself. At this moment it actually does not feel like the hill to pass away on– however am I incorrect? I consider all the rebels and dissidents during soviet times. They did not walk with a sign on them stating “F– k Lenin.” They understood their demonstration would be lost. “Live to eliminate another day.”
I left the physician’s workplace quite depressed. I put the fake mask away and checked out, and after that left, barefaced. The truth I was tricking everybody with a fake mask no longer interested me. I no longer felt excused being an undercover agent for the cause, anxious I would lose my cover if I based on a chair and lit my mask on fire screaming, “viva la revolución!” I was a spy after all, best to lay low. That attitude lost a bit of its appeal.
Medical professionals don’t seem to have a problem following the rules in order to stay in practice. Most of them do not even think of it. The orders come down from above and they give in. I wouldn’t be surprised if the CDC, FDA, AMA or whoever else in authority, told physicians to administer fuel through an IV to cure some brand-new (fake) illness affecting the masses, most of the “soldiers of medicine” would comply.
Possibly I am being too extreme here. And maybe they comply with something like mask wearing due to the fact that they see no damage in it, and if it is needed for them to keep their license (the license that allows them to assist individuals, which is the genuine issue in their mind) they are perfectly going to do it. To be sincere, using a mask in a medical facility with a ton of ill individuals crushing about (with pathogens that a mask might block) may not be such a stupid concept.
However when does this sort of compliance based upon these sorts of factors, begin to backfire on us? Possibly we really are at a point here where the sacrifice of not entering into to see the physician ends up being required to maintain humankind?
Yes, it is that huge of an issue now. Being forced to wear a mask has nothing to do with preventing illness, whether people believe it does or not, it doesn’t. It has everything to do with marking those who are willing, happily, to adhere to arbitrary authority. The mask is a symbol of humbleness and deterioration. It is a submissive gesture, just as shackles are on a servant, or the Star of David is, if it is stitched onto the coat of a Jew.
Complying with mask wearing, if you are doing so because you are afraid of a ghost infection, or of authority that will punish you if you do not use one, is being certified to a lie. That is why it is not an option. Individuals believe they are wearing masks because it is their right to choose to wear one. But their choice to use one as their option, is based upon a lie. Any choice based on a lie is incorrect, it is incorrect, and it is a nail in the coffin of humankind.
Todd Hayen is a signed up psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Research Studies. He concentrates on Jungian, stereotypical, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can check out here
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