It’s obvious from
Glenda Sharkey’s bizarre commentary entitled “Taking away our rights” that she
fails to understand what it means to be a member of a society.
According to the
Cambridge dictionary, ‘society’ is defined as the set of rules that a group of individuals lives by known
as ‘the social contract.’ In other words, people must play a part
in agreeing to abide by certain rules that will benefit the majority of the
group members.
Philosopher Thomas Hobbes theorizes that without a society, “Man's natural state would be to
preserve only oneself; a man without society would steal another family's food,
seduce other men's wives and kill anyone who got in his way. Of course,
the same man would be in constant danger of those things happening to him, his
wife and his children. What people needed, therefore, was a society, which
would provide protection by subjecting everyone to a set of rules (social
contract).”
The ‘social contract’ not only involves people agreeing to
abide by certain rules, but also choosing a leader who may make decisions which
benefit the group as a whole.
And therein is where the flaw exists in Ms. Sharkey’s
thinking about protecting one’s ‘self-rights’ in resisting the state mask
mandate. It turns into a perfect example of pure selfishness, for she
wants to decide, in isolation, what rules she desires to follow to benefit only
her. And if she doesn’t like the rule, she categorizes it as an
infringement on her ‘self-rights’; again a rather self-centered point of view
showing little regard to the other members of the society of which she has
chosen to be a member.
She raises the issue of mandated seat belt wearing while
riding in a car as a possible early example of impinging on one’s
‘self-rights’. Contrary to popular belief, wearing a seat belt not only
protects her but also the other societal members riding in her vehicle in the event
of an accident. Its requirement protects her body from becoming a dangerous
projectile thrown into another person riding in the car. It’s in place to
protect her and other members of Ms. Sharkey’s society.
Ms. Sharkey, like so many others who have made mask wearing a
politicized ‘self-rights’ issue, fails to comprehend that she should wear a
mask to help protect others in society from being infected by her.
Ms. Sharkey has no way of knowing whether or not she is an asymptomatic carrier
of COVID-19. Mask wearing should be done out of a cooperative effort to
function as a member of the society from which Ms. Sharkey continually
benefits. It is not an issue about ‘self-rights.’
Additionally, as far as her statement is concerned, that
wearing a mask might be a health risk by trapping exhaled carbon dioxide and causing one to breathe
in more CO2, this is categorically false. The WHO listed this as one of the
common myths being circulated on social media and states scientific data which indicate that the prolonged use of surgical masks doesn't lead to CO2
intoxication or a lack of oxygen. I don’t find evidence of any
doctors passing out during surgeries.
I hope Ms. Sharkey realizes that if she strictly adhered to
her beliefs about societal cooperation (rules) and its infringement on her
‘self-rights’, she would have no alternative but to come to the finale
conclusion that she really has very few ‘self-rights.’
If she truly believes that, and that mandating a mask to
protect other societal members from prolonged hospitalization and possible
death is an infringement on, or a taking away of her ‘self-rights’, I suggest
she take up residence in China, for then she will truly understand what taking
away “self rights’ really means.
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