Social Distancing

Social distancing. Ugh. Am I the only one sick of that term? I'm not a social creature, but I hope we can retire those words.

Social distancing always had its problems. There had to be limitations to how hard we pushed. How could we enforce it? Were we going to throw people into jails where they would be force into closer proximity to others? We could fine, but what if someone refused to pay? How could we enforce these policies in a manner that didn't undermine the concept?

Oddly enough, some people think we didn't go far enough. Some even insist that we should have pushed harder since they failed to achieve 100% compliance. If we made social distancing an even bigger restriction on life, how would that improve compliance? Enough with this "proper lockdown" argument. 100% compliance was never a realistic goal.

What's even more bizarre about social distancing is that we pushed concepts that seemed to make it more difficult. You can't lock people away in their homes. People need to go outdoors. Why limit the space available? Closing parks can reduce the amount of space available for those who head outdoors, limiting the ability to maintain distance from others. I'm fine with closing parking lots as a means of reducing the number of people travelling to a popular space, which some communities did.

Campgrounds are similar. Arguments can be made about the shared bathrooms, but campsites are outdoors with space between sites. For the purpose of social distancing, campgrounds could actually give people a space of their own outside the confines of their houses. Campgrounds never should have been closed.

I prefer to keep my distance from others while in public. I don't need a pandemic for that. I just don't want an overly arbitrary approach that involves shutting down spaces that should have remained open. I also don't believe in the authoritarian approach. Explain the value of social distancing so that we will do what's right. Don't simply tell us that we have to turn to authoritarian figures to dictate how we live our lives during this time.