Fox News reported and questioned whether the lifting of the Capital Mask Mandate was politically motivated just before the annual the State of the Union Address. Even left leaning states which held on to the mandate with a death grip are finally lifting their indoor mask requirements. It seems without explanation; politicians finally realized the mask mandate didn’t have the punch it once had.
As the pandemic unfolded, the real science behind the usefulness of those cheap paper face coverings finally broke through the insanity promoted by Fauci and the CDC and declared, face masks as useless in preventing of the spread of COVID. Good Moral Compasses commented on this fiasco in the past. How sad it is to come to grips with a self-governing republic which cares more about holding on to power than it does about the welfare of its citizens.
Besides being noneffective, masks have actually caused many psychological and emotional complications with those who dutifully obeyed, especially children. The Teacher’s Union demanding the use of masks in the schools has caused much harm to our children, but yet they still hold on to the nonsensical position. In Los Angeles for example, the Teacher’s Union are still fighting to keep the mandates as a part of their collective bargaining agreement. In Chicago, public school students are still required to wear masks in classrooms. Obviously, these school districts are out of touch with their counterparts in other major cities. It seems these unions can’t let go of power, so science be damned.
Notwithstanding, the authoritarians who tried to isolate people during the COVID madness could not change one thing: The need of every human person to relate with another. The mask mandates tried to cover the faces of citizens by covering the most observable and demonstrative part of the facial human anatomy, the mouth and nose. The only thing left exposed were the eyes.
Quite remarkably, when people finally ventured out into the public by necessity, they were forced to interact with store employees cutting their luncheon meat by the only way they could, by looking them right in the face, and, yes, establishing eye contact.
The simple act of talking to another or ordering a product with a mouth covered with a mask, is hardly an optimal form of communication. Naturally and imperceivably, when one sense is diminished, another sense takes up the slack much like those who have lost their sight have a heightened sense of smell.
Without thought, people had to make up for the loss of seeing another’s lips moving while talking and automatically began to look deeply into the eyes of another to confirm their question or comment was received and understood. The unintended consequence of masking the populace was to reignite a lost human characteristic of looking at another, eye to eye.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is a big deal. Even the liberal Huffington Post acknowledges how Big Tech has a negative effect on the nonverbal requirement of human interaction. When individuals hide behind illuminated computer screens to converse with one another, there is no need for eye contact making communication perfunctory and lifeless.
The addiction to social media has atrophied a basic human expression, the inability to hold a head up and look another in the eye for an extended period. The masks have done one good thing, it forced all of us to look at another as a human being and acknowledge them as worthy of time and consideration.
Now that we are looking at one another again and regaining a part of our humanity lost, let’s not take it for granted again and rush back to our screens.