During our current pandemic Emergency Degree
regimen, in this most recent re-opening phase, our malls/department stores have
opened again, albeit with extremely strict hygienic protocols. Some of the government controls have given me
some pause. There is a bit of dialectic
tension here that has conflicted me.
The track and trace plan here in our
Age of Covid-19 is a very efficient system to monitor virus transmissions and
to track, trace and do any necessary quarantines. And since such track and trace policies have
been proven to be extremely effective – think, South Korea and Germany (look at
their record of minimizing deaths) – it makes sense for panicked governments to
use them.
Here in Thailand, track and trace now consists
of two options if you want to do any commerce with most major merchants. One, install a common QR-code reader on your
smartphone so you can quickly scan their QR-code to register that you are
entering a mall, or an individual store within it, or most of the convenience
stores and markets, and then recording when you exit. Or, two, you must write down on a sheet of
paper your name and phone number as well as your time of entry and exit from
the store. In either case, you leave a
record (name, phone number, time of entry and exit) of where you were in
crowded public venues so that you can be contacted (tracked and traced) in case
a person in the same store as you at the same time has been confirmed as being
infected with Covid-19. It tracks down
the disease and its transmission routes very well.
However, the core anti-authoritarian part of
my soul, deeply grounded within my principal identity since I was a toddler,
bristles and rebels at the very thought of such government snooping. I do NOT trust any governments. Governments have a distinct perennial track
record of abusing powers given to them in the panic of dire emergencies and
never giving back any freedoms or privacy after normality returns. Powers derived from such crises are a
fascist’s wet dream (as it is with all their authoritarian fellow-collectivist
socialist cousins).
Yet – in this eternal dialectic – as a
70-year-old penniless expat living in powerless exile in a foreign land and
accustomed to compromising with political controls here which are not limited
by any constitutional constraints or bills of rights, I know that I sometimes
have to ignore my principles and relax in order to live a life free of
unnecessary hassle. Hermit serenity maintained (but at what cost
to my integrity?).
My decision to cooperate with the new track
and trace orthodoxy here evolved thusly this last week. I went to my local store, and after they
routinely took my temperature with an electronic sensor, they directed me to a
table with a pen and book, where I had to write my name, phone number, and
times of entry and exit. I realized
immediately that this was exceedingly tedious, and that such rigamarole, at
every single store, every single day, at every transaction, serves only to seriously
disrupt my zen. I have better things
to do with my precious moments of consciousness than to fill out time-consuming
bureaucratic paperwork forms. A
smoother, faster, less distracting way of fulfilling these (intrusive) track
and trace requirements would be welcomed – and the QR-code reader option is
that. So, I surrendered. I acquired QR-code reader capability for my
phone. After all, it only records your
phone number and times and places of public intercourse – (oh, is that all,
really? Forgive my skepticism!).
Next day, I visited my local store and tried
out the reader and scanned the QR-code at the store’s door. I clicked “checked in”, and after exiting the
store, I scanned their QR-code again and clicked “checked out”. The day after that, I taxied to newly
re-opened Central Pinklao mall for some essentials I cannot get elsewhere,
e.g.: a robust umbrella for the oncoming
Rainy Season; DVDs from the finally re-opened DVD store there; and Tops Market
stuff like cheeses and other imported foods.
My QR-code reader worked well. I
scanned the mall’s code to enter (and again to eventually exit), and the same
at each individual store in the mall – the DVD shop, the umbrella store, and
the Tops Market. It was simple and
fast. The Thai workers who were manning
the entrances seemed to be very appreciative of my cooperation.
So, have I betrayed my principles of
sovereign individual rights – my privacy – and bowed down in humble submission
to the almighty State? Most probably I
have, a bit. I have compromised. As part of a poor excuse, I will say that, at
my age, I don’t have time to storm the barricades for my ideals when there will
be very little success achieved, while I do have other important values
pressing immediately on my limited time.
I have so many books yet to read, reviews to write, personal
correspondence to answer, etc. I need to
streamline and filter out life’s distractions.
And I also need to participate in daily market life here.
While being a lifelong individualist,
ethically and politically, I still may be able to explain my behavior by
reference to my early training in Boy Scout virtues. Scouting taught me self-actualization and
self-reliance, striving for and achieving personal ideals and goals, and yet one
required Merit Badge was “Citizenship in the Community”. Scouting taught me about an additional consideration
for my neighbors. And, I am also a
military veteran, with those acquired brotherhood virtues, forged in fire, that
acknowledge that there are times when it is cooperative teamwork that is necessary
to get all of us through extreme chaos and danger. Cooperation with track and trace today seems
like a civil way to act and to also protect myself, my family and my
neighbors. It is polite and is conducive
to harmonious life in one’s community. Today,
I wear a mask, and I track and trace.
Yet, at the same time I am, and always have
been, unapologetically selfish, always striving after my own peace of
mind, my own elusive personal nirvana. (For
over half a century, I’ve always been more Hinayana than Mahayana!) And, no, being selfish does NOT exclude
caring for others. (Can you see this
dialectic’s ongoing progression?)
This
pandemic is a storm of dukkha upon us all, and as Aristotle – really
more of an ethical individualist at heart than he’s given credit for – said, we
are still social beings living together.
My own self-interest shouldn’t conflict fundamentally with being civil,
polite and cooperative in weathering this storm together with my community,
upon which we all mutually depend.
Post Script:
A novel relevant to our Age of Covid-19:
The Plague (1947) by Albert Camus. It’s a classic that I highly recommend.
-Zenwind.
.
