Homo homini lupus, wrote the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes: Man is man’s wolf. In arguments about politics, you can lose confidants, that is what older generations have told you over and over again. For a long time, such a widespread dispute seemed far away. Now there is the virus and the “measures” and hardenings that were no longer known. Every opinion becomes a verbal declaration of war.
The kindergarten teacher is concerned. The neighboring group was closed due to a corona case. “The brother of the infected child was brought into our group anyway,” she says, “a child at risk”. A mother immediately posts an “emotional request” in the parent Whatsapp group: “If you could leave the siblings at home and look after them, that would break the chain.” The mother addressed replied: “Shall we take a deep breath? Panic has never helped. We test every day, everyone is healthy. ”She follows the rules of the health department. “In these cases, rapid tests are for the bin,” replies another mother. “Shall we just let it slip through?” Disagree, she says.
Children at risk. Emotional requests. Infested children.
Sure, there is, as Hobbes once demanded, a state, it lays down rules. But even with rules it is not easy in the corona chaos. Anyone who strictly follows them can still be defamed as inconsiderate. Anyone who breaks it is considered to be showing no solidarity, and people do not hesitate for long. Particularly sensible is someone who goes beyond the rules, possibly voluntarily isolating themselves, even if it is not necessary at all.
There are two camps. The supposedly smart people who follow the “smart and caring state” – without asking a lot of questions, without much complaint – and the “stupid ones” who still haven’t understood how the pandemic is going. The obedient and the annoying resistance. The solidarians and the “eternal splitters”. The morally good guys and the selfish assholes. There are no more shades of gray. Who – who? That was what it was called back then in the GDR. Tell me where you stand! Without tolerance, you end up losing a country.
In Germany everything was always in order. Germans are used to things going well. Politicians like Angela Merkel kept crises away from us, like the financial crisis back then: We’ll do it, your money is safe. Your medical care is safe, even if we save on it. But the virus has also made the state quite helpless, and in truth it can only prevent the worst. He doesn’t have a master plan either. But he does so. The state says: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, now the children too. Although not even the head of the vaccination commission advises that.
The Chancellor says there are no more red lines for the state. Whatever Olaf Scholz means by that. What is supposed to make us safe tends to lead to uncertainty, skepticism, conflict, and resistance. Conflicts that we can hardly bear: We have not learned how to deal with conflict. We’ll pillory those who don’t think like us. It’s grueling. And goes deep into the private sphere.
We have to behave, take a stand, in daycare, in friendships, in families. It’s not easy when you are unsure yourself. “You will also vaccinate your children, won’t you?” Says an acquaintance. I look at her perplexed. Actually, I don’t intend to. Why don’t i say it
We get loud in discussions that are inevitable, freak out, rational arguments are replaced by emotions, in chat groups, in relationships. An acquaintance, boosted, tells about his girlfriend who is not vaccinated and who is frustrated. You feel marginalized and despised. And too little understood by her partner. Attitudes solidify and freeze. And we know less and less how to deal with it.
“It’s your own fault if you don’t get it” – that’s how you’ve heard yourself talk when it comes to unvaccinated people. A friend who, as a doctor, knows far more studies than I do, tells me she doesn’t want that stuff injected into her body. She knows that science cannot deliver one hundred percent truths here either, especially not for the future. That worries you. I wonder what is she waiting for? And notice in the discussion how little I know myself. We try to avoid the topic, but you always end up with Corona at some point.
A friend says that her son is the only one in the class who has not been vaccinated and that he is being massively bullied. We cannot influence how the virus behaves. And hardly as Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and Olaf Scholz think about it. And what follows from it. But we can take care of our interpersonal relationships. Be careful not to break so much. But that is only possible with open ears, with tolerance, not with blockade. Yes, tolerance has limits. At the latest in the event of verbal or direct violence. But let’s not be distracted. It still needs tolerance.
The Kita management has now sent a circular email. In it, she warns of parent WhatsApp chats. Before rocking up. Good to get out of the chat. Corona continues, however. And the quarrel with the virus. We live in this society. You cannot mute it.
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