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This store policy is jarring because it is responding to a condition we do not usually explicitly recognise. It is a policy to prevent conflict in places with l
by monkeycantype 6y ago
This store policy is jarring because it is responding to a condition we do not usually explicitly recognise. It is a policy to prevent conflict in places with low levels of societal trust and high levels of political polarization, it has spread to a location where social trust is healthier, and in doing so has exposed in a strange symbolic way the consequences of low societal trust.
Do I even need to say it? 2020 has laid bare this trust is very uneven in its distribution.
I think that different levels of societal trust has had a large impact on the progression of the covid pandemic in different parts of different anglophone countries. I'm singling out anglophone countries, because I believe the levels of individual freedoms we enjoy mean that despite official mandates, our compliance with preventative measures was essentially an individual choice that reflected our faith in our fellow citizens, and the sincerity (though I would not go so far as to say competence) of our governments.
In Australia remembrance of past wars has been politicized, but I can still see a person wearing a poppy and see it as a sincere act. It hasn't yet become a symbol of partisan affiliation.
We still describe our preference for a political party with a layer of indirection as:
I vote for X,
rather than
I am X
I hope this lasts.
EDIT: /u/reaperducer reads the article - pops conjecture bubble
- maxerickson 6y agoUS is a high trust society. We seem determined to piss it away, but none the less.
- Kye 6y agoYou and I clearly live in a different US.
- maxerickson 6y agoNo, we just have a different idea of how low trust can go. I spend ~0 time considering the quality or contents of the goods I purchase at my local grocer. There's some produce I avoid, but they aren't hiding the quality of what is sitting out. What do you do if you aren't sure what is in a box? edit: my local grocer is a bad example really. But I spend 0 time worrying about the quality of goods in pretty much any retail store...
- bigbubba 6y agoIn my local American grocery store, I inspect all bread for mold, all cartons of eggs for breaks or spoilage, fruit for rotten abscesses. I avoid Walmart because they get special low quality SKUs, Amazon because they comingle counterfeit products, and eBay because people will send you boxes full of rocks instead of whatever you thought you bought.
- bigbubba 6y agoIt hardly makes sense to speak of the US as a monolith in this respect. In some parts of the US, people don't lock their front doors during the day and unattended vegetable stands have money jars for honor-system payment. In other parts, they put bars on all their windows like prison cells and lock bicycles to anything bolted to the ground.
- monkeycantype 6y agoI have lived in both the US and Australia, and for all the flaws love both countries. On an international scale all the anglophone countries are extraordinarily high in their levels of mass social trust and respect for human rights. I fear that social trust is declining in all these countries because we do not recognise how special the conditions within we live under are, and as a result are not working hard enough to maintain it. I believe the consequences are visible earlier in a nation of 300 million than they are in a nation of 20 million. I am optimistic, more by disposition than through evidence, that this is something we will fix.