Today, Moscow has switched to a universal regime of self-isolation. It is sad to look down from the window at the children’s cordoned off playground. But it was even sadder to look at her, crammed with children and adults, all this week. Personally, I went into strict self-isolation on the evening of March 20 and convinced my loved ones of its necessity. Nobody forced me to isolate myself. On the contrary, they told me from all sides that fears are greatly exaggerated, artificially aggravated, there is no epidemic, just someone is now rebuilding the economy and making money on the fear of the inhabitants of the world.
“Do you believe that? You have not read an article about how the world elite is getting rich on this virus? ” - the very pregnant manicurist asked me at the end of February, lowering the mask so that I could see her grin.
The mask, of course, was not on it from the coronavirus. Yes, indeed, some unsubstantiated article was already walking around the building, constructing a conspiracy theory without relying on the evidence base and sources worthy of respect. I read it, it did not impress me, and the situation in Wuhan and the records of eyewitnesses on social networks impressed me.
I well remembered the mockery from the mask, because it contained affection, and indulgence towards me, unreasonable, and something else that made me then think for a long time and look for this third element of the smile of the pregnant master's definition. Therefore, honestly, this column is the fruit of my long thoughts. Of course, I deciphered the grin, but more on that later. In the meantime, I’ll tell you what a delicate situation I have with my voluntary self-isolation.
At the end of February, I began to avoid business kisses and friendly hugs.
- How, Marina, you do not want to cuddle? They asked me. “You were at war, you should not be afraid.”
I wanted to laugh it off: “There was no coronavirus in the war”, but I didn’t joke because I intuitively understood that there would be no truth in such an answer. Well, if only because any war is worse than the coronavirus.
“War” - this word has recently been constantly walking in close association with the coronavirus. European leaders publicly call the epidemic a war, my subscribers send me alarming messages asking if the war will begin after the epidemic. I answer: “No!” - but still I compare that of myself, who came to the war in 2014 and did not sit at home for a day, but went to the place where help was most needed, with the one who was now at home and whom acquaintances themselves or loudly suspect of excessive fear of dying.
But I'm not afraid to die. I have concerns about the epidemic, but fear of death comes last. I have another fear - to get infected and infect others. Even worse is to become an asymptomatic carrier and transmit the virus to older people with whom I can come into contact in the store, in the subway, on the street. From the very beginning, my being at home was dictated by responsibility for others. My active trips in 2014 in the Donbass were dictated by the same. I was where my help was needed, then, and I am where my help is needed now: at home, without becoming a risk factor for people who are older than me and may not survive the disease. This I call social responsibility.
Since mid-March, I have been wandering around the city without an important matter as social irresponsibility and selfishness towards others.
I have no doubt that such fearless behavior as going to barbecue, closed parties for 20 people, tight sitting on benches in yards and playgrounds, is provoked by reports that young people die much less often and themselves may not notice how ill . And we add: do not notice how the grandmother who walked by to take out the garbage or walked with the dog was infected. Grandmother, who has not yet enjoyed the sun and grandchildren, the smell of spring and would like to breathe spring smells next year, the year following the next, and stay in this home world she needs for her and for her for another 20 years. Grandmother, who is still badly needed by his family and his dog, who is now running past a tightly stocked shop. But she may not stay in this world, because too many followers of the theory “the fittest survives” have divorced in it. And here in this coronavirus, of course, is war. During wars, the weakest suffer and die.
For a long time I did not go to the master in the salon near the house. I only know that, according to estimates, she has not yet given birth. But when I passed by a couple of weeks ago, I saw that the door to the salon was openly welcoming. I took off my cover with improvised means, having read the advice of many women behind the wall in a neighboring apartment, in a neighboring house, on a neighboring street, in a neighboring city, in a neighboring country, who found themselves in the same situation. But the smile of my pregnant master still haunted me. What is this third element, so close, one might say, native, familiar all my life, and maybe sitting in me too? And then I recognized him. Yes, this is our folk cunning and ingenuity! Because people can’t be fooled. The people are not a fool to believe in the first official version proposed to him. The people know that they want to manipulate them, and in order to prove to themselves that they are not a fool, the people invent a version alternative to the official one.
Here the most interesting thing happens. As an alternative, people choose the option that is most easily absorbed. After all, it’s easy to read a short note in a social network that does not require intellectual and time expenditures, and believe in it so as not to live in panic fear. It’s much more difficult to listen to biologists and scientists, to look at the schedules of the spread of infection in different countries, to compare the details of what is happening in your mind and draw your own conclusions, which, by the way, also remove panic fear, but at the same time explain what exactly each individual person should do for the sake of to stop the infection.
Well, now that we are now in compulsory self-isolation from today, we all have the time and opportunity to study quality sources and become responsible - first by force, and then, perhaps, of our own free will.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.