OMG! I absolutely hate the word ‘safe’

[anxiouslyanne]

Why oh why do people use this word in association with coronavirus? I’m so sick of it I feel like punching the next person who uses it. Stay f…ing safe

@Suranjeep

The other common thing was how people were doing things “to help you during the pandemic”

Like when banks, council services, public toilets etc reduced their hours, “to help”

Yes. "Safety" has been used as an excuse for shoddy service.

Absolutely spot on @MalagaNights

@MalagaNights

It's not just a pleasantry.

It's deeply insidious & in becoming the pleasantry now shared suggests that safety is the primary value we all share above all else.

Above autonomy, freedom, rationality, tolerance, seeking of joy and quality in life, safety is above all of these.

It also suggests safety is possible if you just do the right things. It's a religious belief we've all bought in to, that this nirvana of safety can be achieved if we all make sacrifices to the gods by doing largely irrelevant but signifynifying behaviours. We will be spared and granted safety.

This culture of 'safetyism' was developing before the pandemic. Jonathan Haidt wrote about in in the Coddling of the American mind and how it was making people fragile and undermining tolerance and mental health.

The pandemic has just put this phenomenon on speed.

We're in a mass psychosis.

And the fear of the god of safety is driving it.

And it's a lie, there is no safety in life. Whatever choice you make there is risk.

Excellent post.

I always think, "What if I don't want to be 'safe'? What if I'm prepared to make my own risk and assessment and take my chances with an illness I've been vaccinated against?"

And yes, I know. It's not all about me. We have to think of the 'greater good' and so on. But a life where narrowly defined 'safety' is the only priority, where everyone and everything is judged solely in terms of their potential for spreading the virus, is a dismal kind of half life.

Great post.

Safe to enjoy a life of misery, disappointment and curtailment at whim.

There are many who would argue that it’s not a life worth living

@MalagaNights

It's not just a pleasantry.

It's deeply insidious & in becoming the pleasantry now shared suggests that safety is the primary value we all share above all else.

Above autonomy, freedom, rationality, tolerance, seeking of joy and quality in life, safety is above all of these.

It also suggests safety is possible if you just do the right things. It's a religious belief we've all bought in to, that this nirvana of safety can be achieved if we all make sacrifices to the gods by doing largely irrelevant but signifynifying behaviours. We will be spared and granted safety.

This culture of 'safetyism' was developing before the pandemic. Jonathan Haidt wrote about in in the Coddling of the American mind and how it was making people fragile and undermining tolerance and mental health.

The pandemic has just put this phenomenon on speed.

We're in a mass psychosis.

And the fear of the god of safety is driving it.

And it's a lie, there is no safety in life. Whatever choice you make there is risk.

Absolutely spot on.

I read resent being dragged along in this kind of "culture".

Fantastic post 👍

@MalagaNights great post

Brilliant MalagaNights.

I feel like I’ve woken up in a mad world where people now have an expectation of immortality from disease, or at least from the only disease that matters.

My sister’s father is 97 years old and she is on high alert that she “will kill him” through slack practice of rules. I couldn’t live like that, it’s exhausting to think about. My dad died at almost 40 years younger than hers, so perhaps I’m more used to the whole mortality thing.

I want to assess my own risk, see the faces of strangers, maybe even take a short holiday. I’ve had 2 vaccines thus far & am worried that in a decade we will be in the same spot, but more ground down and (on the surface) compliant. Locked in our own countries, being told who we can socialize with, a generation of kids raised to be anxious about their health and fearful of strangers’ faces, and concerts, and outdoor markets etc.

Agree !!

Wow, what a post MalagaNights, I agree with every word and you said it so perfectly.

@MalagaNights

It's not just a pleasantry.

It's deeply insidious & in becoming the pleasantry now shared suggests that safety is the primary value we all share above all else.

Above autonomy, freedom, rationality, tolerance, seeking of joy and quality in life, safety is above all of these.

It also suggests safety is possible if you just do the right things. It's a religious belief we've all bought in to, that this nirvana of safety can be achieved if we all make sacrifices to the gods by doing largely irrelevant but signifynifying behaviours. We will be spared and granted safety.

This culture of 'safetyism' was developing before the pandemic. Jonathan Haidt wrote about in in the Coddling of the American mind and how it was making people fragile and undermining tolerance and mental health.

The pandemic has just put this phenomenon on speed.

We're in a mass psychosis.

And the fear of the god of safety is driving it.

And it's a lie, there is no safety in life. Whatever choice you make there is risk.

Captures it perfectly . Especially the part about how this utterance serves as a signifier/ reminder that there is (only) one acceptable shared value that trumps all others..