3 ms·
Both things can be true. Mary's receptiveness to the idea that she could possibly be an asymptomatic carrier could hardly have been separated from the fact that
by dTal 4y ago
Both things can be true. Mary's receptiveness to the idea that she could possibly be an asymptomatic carrier could hardly have been separated from the fact that this would be deeply inconvenient to her. Given the choice between two unlikely explanations (asymptomatic carrier of typhoid, grand "anti-Irish" conspiracy targeting her and her alone for unknown reasons), she chose to believe the one that disrupted her life less.
"It is difficult to get a man [sic] to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" --Upton Sinclair
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- olliej 4y ago“Inconvenient to her” is an interesting way of describing “destitute and homeless”. Her only source of income was cooking and house care. The state said “you cannot do this”, but also did not provide her with any alternative. Noting of course that putting a contagious typhoid carrier into the homeless community would like exacerbate any spread of disease, the only “safe” option given all of that is suicide, which doesn’t seem particularly just. I want to be clear: knowing she was causing death means she was clearly not in the right, but saying she kept on working because it was inconvenient is a gross misrepresentation.
- dTal 4y agoHey now, I said "deeply inconvenient"! (There's really no need to nitpick my choice of words here. Your observations are quite valid and strengthen the point I was making. "Inconvenient" does not imply "trivial".)
- olliej 4y agoah fair enough - I guess my interpretation was biased from other comments making her out to be the villain. So apologies for that.