Can’t Put Humpty Together Again
Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that the endless array of information we get from many devices has ironically loosened our grip on both reality and truth. Even now, as the Omicron variant begins to take hold in Ontario, we are learning that those most vulnerable are the unvaccinated – those who refused to acknowledge the majority of scientific and research findings regarding Covid-19. Somehow, they had lost the verifiable truth amid their ideology. This might be what is happening at large across the planet.
Even those health emergencies from our recent past are now becoming the object of ever-increasing denial. HIV and AIDS were vital diseases that we had come to terms with in recent decades and thought controversy about them had primarily been put to bed. Now we discover that the Internet is full of individuals and groups casting significant doubts on the two significant health threats. Even just a decade ago, we thought such attacks were ludicrous and anti-science. Suddenly, science itself and all its disciplines have come under assault.
In 2004, the American Centers for Disease Control moved out across the country to cover gay pride events in Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland and San Francisco. They interviewed a thousand men to catch their thoughts on AIDS and HIV. What they discovered left them in shock. Conspiracy theories were everywhere. Over 50% of black males didn’t believe HIV caused AIDS. The numbers were also high for Hispanic men (48%) and white males (30%).
This seems unfathomable, but it’s a growing phenomenon and helps to explain why such large numbers today deny the Covid-19 threat. It’s not about the viruses but about science itself.
For a long time, these AIDS deniers had to content themselves with publicizing their views on the edges of traditional societies. Now they are becoming more mainstream and are in the process of creating a new “denial” culture. Why is it that such a large group of citizens seek to burn science itself to the ground in the face of so much verified science and research? Even as the death tolls mount in this pandemic, the denial culture grows.
The truth, of course, is that it is we who have changed. It feels good to rail against the system. Isn’t that what younger generations did in the 1960s? What’s so bad about it? The reality is that those earlier generations were trying to modernize institutions, while today, the deniers are determined to blow them up. The belief used to be that the truth would set you free; now, the catchphrases are all about freeing ourselves from the established facts. There’s a difference, and the consequences are deadly.
Regardless of which side of the HIV/AIDS or Covid-19 you land on, the greater truth is that we are breaking apart. The marvel that is our modern health system is overburdened and under attack. That we are one of the healthiest nations on earth no longer matters. And how science and research helped create such efficiencies seems a mere distraction to many. Even ground-breaking efforts of the past are under threat and suspicion.
This is what it has come to. Our political, social, economic and health accomplishments are now in the cross-hairs of a new generation of deniers, who can see that their work is undermining entire nations but who wish to prevail at all costs. Decades of attainment, for all their flaws, are now taking on water and settling deeper into the morass each day. Those against the system have no idea of how to bring it all back together again in a meaningful and cooperative way.
