In pandemic, even religion, politics can be discussed — but not the Great Pumpkin
By Dave Berger and Chuck Frederick
October 29, 2020 —-Duluth News Tribune
In different eras in our history, the old adage to never discuss religion and politics in polite company has been used by many. It is a way to avoid heated arguments in diverse settings. A number of families have modified the maxim to state, “No discussion of religion and politics at the dinner table.”
While such topic avoidance was common practice before the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, the recent corresponding massive social upheavals have now forced the subjects of religion and politics to fuse together in most of our public discussions. But we no longer discuss issues like racism, social inequality, crime, police policies, law and order, or protests in an open and frank manner. Instead we put an absolutist religious framework on our civil life. We have divided all of our politics into “good” and “evil,” “right” or “wrong,” “blessed” and “damned.”
There is no middle ground anymore.
The gloves are off, and the battle for righteousness has begun. If one of our family members or friends or neighbors shows the slightest disagreement with our political position, we are all over them. In social media, for example, many, many people have stated most clearly that support for a candidate or movement they disagree with will result in a blocking or banning of the offender: “I cannot believe you support that insane candidate. They want to destroy our country! You are no longer my friend or a member of my family.”
Elections are about leadership and direction, not absolute truth or destiny. But the pandemic has increased political and religious fanaticism amongst even the most rational of us. They take their favorite candidate and give them divine right while their opponent is impugned with the characteristics of Satan. The new norm among all pandemic politicians is: “If you are not with us, you are against us.”
If the pandemic has shown nothing else, it has shown how closely intertwined our destinies are with one another. Each of us is a traveler on the same small ship. What norms should we follow to make our collective journey manageable?
On Feb. 15, 1840, The Corsair: A Gazette of Literature, Art, Dramatic Criticism, Fashion, and Novelty in New York published a letter by John Stager, who suggested 18 maxims to follow when on a steamer voyage. Number 12 was: “Never discuss religion or politics with those who hold opinions opposite to yours; they are subjects that heat in handling until they burn your fingers.”
I believe John Stager had it right over 180 years ago. We know the folks who hold opposite opinions. Why purposely go out of our way to engage them and burn our fingers?
That being said, I do agree that we should discuss sensitive social justice issues — and we have not been discussing them. Given our divisions, we are screaming at each other instead, at the top of our lungs, talking way past one another.
We need to come back to the dinner table for polite and meaningful conversation, understanding social equality is possible, change is possible, and a more equitable world is possible. But these possibilities can only be realized if we can talk in a peaceful, respectful, and reasonable manner with our family, friends, and neighbors. Each conversation is an opportunity to improve ourselves and our society.
We must step back and try to recreate a norm of civility and even levity.
My fellow native Minnesotan, cartoonist Charles Schulz, was right to infuse humor into the old adage when he had Linus state in both a 1961 “Peanuts” comic strip and in the 1966 classic animated “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” that, “There are three things I have learned not to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”
Happy Halloween and happy Election Day, everyone!
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College. He wrote this for the News Tribune.
A crossroads of history awaits us post-pandemic
From the column: “The era of the coronavirus and the political and social upheaval that paralleled it are slowly coming to an end, but it’s going to take a long time to recover from these twin disasters. We need to start reflecting on what direction we should take. We need to learn from these events and build a better world.”
By Dave Berger
January 18, 2021 at 12:00 PM
On Wednesday, we will see the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States of America. It also will be the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in our nation. It was on that fateful day of Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, in the state of Washington that the first person was diagnosed with the scourge that has plagued us for the last year.
We desperately want to forget the worldwide pandemic that has now claimed nearly 2 million victims. We want to forget the pain of having our world turned upside down with so many of our lives put on continuous hold. We want to forget the destruction of our economy and the suffering of our people.
We want to forget the year of seemingly never-ending social and political violence. We want to forget the upheaval, rioting, and massive damage to our neighborhoods and businesses swirling around the necessary calls for more social justice. We want to forget the bitter presidential election that culminated with a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by forces of an incumbent president who would not accept defeat.
Forgetting this most unpleasant past year seems very tempting, but it would be a serious mistake. We cannot face the future effectively without our recent history in mind. As Spanish philosopher George Santayana stated in 1905 in his work, “Reason in Common Sense, Vol. 1,” “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
But in remembering this disastrous past year, what have we really learned from it?
We have learned that we do not all suffer in the same ways. Some have more economic cushion than others. For many, every step during the pandemic has been like bone on bone. For others, it has been more of an inconvenience than a life-and-death struggle. While some bitterly complain about not being able to eat and drink at their favorite bars and restaurants, others are having a difficult time putting food on their kitchen tables.
We have learned more about our humanity and collective souls. By putting so many more of us closer to death, the pandemic has made us understand life and each other better. We more easily see the pain that others have to face due to social and racial injustice, and we are more open to discuss necessary changes.
We have learned that politicians will exploit our fears and use the pandemic for their own selfish agendas. So many of these pandemic politicians repeated a falsehood that the pandemic would magically disappear after the 2020 election. Others used the pandemic to speedily change voting procedures that would improve their chances of being elected.
We are rapidly approaching a crossroads of history. There is a sign post before us pointing in different directions. Many are yearning to go back to normal, but was pre-pandemic society the paradise we think it was? Was there liberty and justice for all?
We can also choose a different path, a path that leads to more equity. This will be a much more challenging direction to walk since it will require real work and the willingness to improve our society.
On the same road to more equity is voting integrity. Millions of people still believe there are issues with a number of our states’ voting processes. There is nothing wrong with each state addressing those concerns through their legislative bodies. We do want to restore full confidence in our future elections.
The era of the coronavirus and the political and social upheaval that paralleled it are slowly coming to an end, but it’s going to take a long time to recover from these twin disasters. We need to start reflecting on what direction we should take. We need to learn from these events and build a better world. We need to work together and cannot rely on pandemic politicians to save us.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College and is a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.
Push past pandemic: include forgiveness in New Year’s resolutions
From the column: Our anger-filled world is of our own making. “Now it is time to grow past anger and into living — together as a people.”
By Dave Berger
December 26, 2020 at 6:00 AM
Many people in our world during this year of the coronavirus have been engulfed in anger without limits: anger at the pandemic, anger with each other, and anger with anything they have little control over.
This swirling cauldron of anger has led to unending finger-pointing. Many blame those unwilling to wear masks and social distance as the cause of the severity of the outbreak. Many others blame the devastation of our economy on those afraid to live their lives in spite of the pandemic.
It is easy to see the social fault lines of anger and blame by witnessing the reactions to an image of a social gathering. If people are wearing masks in the image, a large number of people get angry and blame them for giving in to fear and for being unpatriotic for not standing up for their individual rights. If people are not wearing masks in the image, a large number of other people get angry and blame them for violating the law and being selfish by not protecting those who are more vulnerable to the disease.
The images of masks or no masks now illicit almost Pavlovian responses of anger and blame. These reactions have now become an unconscious routine without thought. We have lost our ability to reason. Not because of the human toll of the virus itself but because of the intense disagreement on how best to react to the disease.
Our political and social divisions have made the pandemic much more painful and frightening than it needed to be. The art of seeing things from another’s view has been lost. The art of negotiation and compromise has been forgotten. The art of seeing some elements of strength in all arguments has been abandoned.
Our unfortunate tale now reveals that we are as angry with each other as we are with a deadly virus.
What we need to do to reunify our world and reconstruct our society after the pandemic is to forgive those we disagree with by really listening to what they have to say. We have all made mistakes and overreactions during this diseased year. No one is above reproach. As Alexander Pope first wrote in his poem, “An Essay on Criticism,” over 300 years ago in 1711: “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
A small gesture in the right direction would be if we all include forgiveness and understanding within our New Year’s resolutions. We need each other. We need those who err on the side of caution to protect our most vulnerable citizens. We need those who err on the side of risk-taking to prepare to reopen our society.
Traditionally, New Year’s resolutions focus more on inward self-improvement matters such as losing weight, getting in shape, learning a new hobby, or getting better organized. This year we need to shift our resolutions to more outward matters that affect us all. Now is the time to resolve that we will stand down from anger and blame and replace those negative reactions with thoughtful interactions that include elements of forgiveness and understanding.
Yes, the vaccines are here and will be critical to restoring and reconciling our world. But they are not enough. We need more.
Forgiveness is the only rational way forward. It is a critical step to rebuild our society. Not to where it was before the pandemic but to a better place.
We ended up in an anger-filled world of our own making. Now it is time to grow past anger and into living — together as a people.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College. He also is a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.
It took a pandemic to realize the importance of community
By Dave Berger
August 24, 2020 at 12:00 PM
On a recent warm, lovely Sunday afternoon, I was walking with my family in the Lowry Hill area of South Minneapolis. We slowly moseyed by Lake of the Isles and the surrounding neighborhood. Many people were out walking, biking, picnicking, playing volleyball, and kayaking. It seemed representative of any normal weekend day in the summer.
We noticed as we walked, however, the new realities all around us due to the pandemic as well as the social upheaval. We tried to stay at least six feet away from everyone. At times, we had to veer off into the grass or don our face masks in order to follow Minnesota Department of Health protocols. We also came across so many homemade signs and graffiti with messages of social justice in the windows of homes and on plywood-covered businesses. “No justice, No peace,” “Black Lives Matter,” “I can’t breathe,” “Justice 4 George Floyd,” and “Resist” were just a few.
Our thoughts of the new realities became even more stark and contrasting when we reached Smith Triangle Park between Hennepin and Emerson avenues at West 24th Street. Across from the park on the Hennepin Avenue side we discovered boarded-up businesses with spray paint on their plywood-covered facades. Painted in red were the phrases “Already Looted” and “Stop Killing Black People.”
On the other side of the very tiny Smith Triangle Park on Emerson Avenue, we faced the majestic façade of Temple Israel. Built in 1928, this stunning building made for a surreal backdrop for the boarded-up businesses on the other side of the park. But it was a reminder that this neighborhood has a long history of integration and survival. Of change and diversity.
In the park itself we found a large statue and monument to Thomas Lowry (1843-1909). It is quite an imposing piece, measuring at least 25-by-20 feet. One of the first thoughts we had was whether Lowry was a racist. And if he was, how long before his statue would be removed? Would the neighborhood then change its name as well?
On the Lowry monument are two phrases set in concrete that flank either side of his likeness. On the left side it reads, “BE THIS COMMUNITY STRONG AND ENDURING. IT WILL DO HOMAGE TO THE MEN WHO GUIDED ITS GROWTH.” And on the right it reads, “THE LESSON OF A PUBLIC SPIRITED LIFE IS A TREE EVER BEARING NEW FRUIT.”
We decided that changing the word “men” to “people” in the first inscription would be more realistic to give rightful homage to those who guided its growth. The second inscription really hit home for me because of the “public spirited life” phrase.
Social distancing has been so very hard on us. We miss each other so very much. I just thought of the irony that it took a worldwide pandemic to get us to rediscover how important community is to us. The new fruit we cultivate now is a future with more racial and economic justice for all.
Turning back to Temple Israel, I read the inscription on top of the façade out loud to my family: “MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES.”
We need so much more of this today. We need to realize that we live in just one house. We need to realize that all of us are just one people. We need to focus our hopes and prayers and actions on unifying together in one community, with one voice, in order to defeat both the pandemic and social injustice.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor at Inver Hills Community College. He wrote this for the News Tribune.
Pandemic raised awareness of excessive government control
From the column: “The story of this pandemic has not been just a biological battle between humans and the virus. It also has been a battle among humans over the legitimacy of mechanisms of authority.”
By Dave Berger
May 18, 2021 at 12:00 PM
As the COVID-19 pandemic ever so slowly winds down, it is important to look back, reflect, and understand what happened to us before we can move forward with our everyday lives. From this crisis I have many vivid memories, including writing opinion pieces for the News Tribune. I started writing them in June and have had a commentary published every month.
Most of my commentaries related to the pandemic and the associated social upheavals, including calls for racial and economic justice. My main motivation was to help people better make sense of the chaos brought to our world.
After recently re-reading my articles, I realize I neglected to examine a significant pattern that explains how the pandemic caused so many rapid social changes.
The delicate equilibrium between social control and individual freedom was severely disrupted during the pandemic. Attempts at disease mitigation by national and local governments had a cascading effect on almost all human interaction worldwide. With mandatory lockdowns, travel restrictions, vaccination programs, social distancing, and face-masking, most people became painfully more aware of the role of government control over their day-to-day lives.
This heightened awareness of external control and the limitation of personal freedoms made most of us more empathetic and supportive to those victimized by abuses of state authority. This explains why social support for the Black Lives Matters movement increased so dramatically during the pandemic. Excesses by law enforcement that promote racial injustice will no longer be tolerated by the majority.
The Black Lives Matter Network was first formed by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi in 2013, just after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. While Black Lives Matters protests were well-known after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014, they became much more effective and widespread during the pandemic because of the rising public support for Black Lives Matter that occurred right after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
This connection between the weakening of the bonds of social control and increases in social protests is not limited to Black Lives Matter-organized events. The massive attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was also an example. Like the protests of last summer, this particular event led to extreme violence fed by challenges to law enforcement and the social order.
Another area of protest that is a direct result of the disruption of the balance of social control involves the resistance of government regulations to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Across the U.S. were large protests against lockdowns and the closures of bars, restaurants, sporting events, and other socially based enterprises. Many broke the law by keeping businesses open or violating face-masking or social-distancing rules, including caps on the numbers of people allowed into such facilities.
Protests are now moving onto resistance to state control and the promotion of massive vaccination programs. A significant plurality of people is concerned there has not been enough testing of the drugs that are now being used to stop the pandemic. They are weary of excessive government control in an era of chaos.
Everyone keeps discussing “the new normal.” They forget that the transition to new social boundaries is not a clean and simple process. During massive social change, there is a period of social disintegration that leads to a period of normlessness, where general social rules are no longer observed and social conflict increases.
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim called this period a state of anomie. In his 1893 classic work, “The Division of Labor in Society,” Durkheim described this process by stating: “It is this anomic state that is the cause of the incessantly recurrent conflicts and the multifarious disorders.”
The story of this pandemic has not been just a biological battle between humans and the virus. It also has been a battle among humans over the legitimacy of mechanisms of authority. As the dust settles, it is up to each of us to help build support for legitimate, just, and sustainable norms of social control.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College. He also is a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.
World upheaval is ushering in a ‘New Enlightenment’
By Dave Berger
July 25, 2020 at 9:00 AM
“Have the courage to use your own reason — that is the motto of the enlightenment.”
— German philosopher Immanuel Kant, 1785
Since the days of The Enlightenment, we have increasingly lost our ability to reason with open minds and open hearts. We have forgotten our humanity and the need to care for one another. For far, far too long, we have been inundated by the stale political rhetoric of the elite. They have created a world based on greed, corruption, and oppression.
This worldwide pandemic and the social and political upheaval that has followed affords us a chance for real social change and intellectual growth. Most average lives have been disrupted by this chaos. So many are taking more time to reflect and understand that the call for more social and economic justice is becoming obvious. We find ourselves in a moment of history that may lead to a New Enlightenment.
Yet the voices of the elitists and their dupes continue to pester us.
“The pandemic is a hoax.”
“Racism and inequality really do not matter.”
“Let’s just get back to normal.”
Let’s open up the schools,”
“The frail and old should be willing to die for the economy.”
“Making money is all that matters.”
In these uncertain times, such simple yet ignorant views call to us, promising us a safe way home. Like siren songs, they entice us. The songs we sing soothe away sorrow. The songs we sing will bring you peace.
We are like members of Odysseus’ crew in Homer’s “The Odyssey.” We too are on a long, chaotic voyage looking for home. We are tempted by the sirens as they pretend to be our saviors. They hope to confuse us and cast us back onto the rocks of injustice.
We cannot allow this to happen. Unlike Odysseus’ crew, we cannot stuff our ears full of wax. We must listen to the sirens and dismiss their songs for the greed-based rhetoric they represent. By understanding their individualistic nonsense, we will be guided by a community-based common sense that will change the world for the better.
The elite want to open the economy as soon as possible to restore their control. They want us busy and not reflecting and caring for others but caught up in the rat race of injustice that they created. Indeed, the allure of “bread and circuses” has weakened in our world. Without the distractions of overwork, entertainment, and eating out at restaurants, institutional racism and economic injustice has been laid bare. People as a whole sense the need for social change.
But how do we gain lasting positive social change? Replacing racist statues, flags, sports team names, and other symbols of oppression is a way overdue first step. Deeper structural reform in government and police policies need to follow. But even more fundamentally, economic reforms like a higher minimum wage, single-payer universal health care, and equity in housing and ownership are also necessary. For all of this to occur, a more dramatic shift in the thinking of the average person is necessary. Each of us must be brave and free enough to use our own courage for the sake of all of us. We need to envision a world not based upon greed and oppression but based upon love and compassion. What the world needs now is a “New Enlightenment.”
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor at Inver Hills Community College. He wrote this for the News Tribune.
Wouldn’t it be nice to get the ‘all clear’?
By Dave Berger
August 12, 2020 at 6:00 AM
I’m sitting at my desk on a Wednesday around midday in the summer of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. I’m writing essays, short stories and poetry to help others and myself cope with the changing realities of our times. Suddenly, loud outdoor sirens come rushing into my open windows.
At first, they are a bit abrupt and unnerving but I quickly look at the clock and notice it is 1 p.m. Since this is the first Wednesday of the month, I relax since the piercing sounds are the normal outdoor emergency sirens. They are tested by my county every month so that we know they are ready to warn us of future severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, hazardous material spills, and even power-plant malfunctions.
These are all grave threats indeed. But I cannot help but to think of how these dangers are minute in comparison to the world-wide pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people. Too bad an outdoor siren could not protect us from our current situation. Wouldn’t that have been nice?
It seems so simple. Sound the siren. Get our people to a place of safety. There is no such simple plan to overcome the pandemic.
The disasters that sirens warn us of don’t last nearly as long as the spread of this coronavirus. In general, we know the limits of those tragedies. We know when the all clear can be given and we can return to our homes safely or come up from the basement.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 makes us shelter in our homes and venture out into unknown hazards with the added chance to bring the infection back home with us. Evidence now suggests that most virus transmission is happening within our homes. We no longer know where the safest place to shelter is. We have little control on when or how we will be threatened.
Yet our heads are full of loud piercing sirens. We have sirens screaming out all around us… rightfully warning of the dangers of the great 2020 pandemic. Public officials, health departments, news media, social media, calls with family, Zoom meetings with colleagues, etc. etc., all reach out with the gruesome details of the threat we now live under. They tell us of death rates, ventilators and people dying utterly alone.
If only the coronavirus would disappear so that the sirens would end. But the virus will not let these heralds of doom retreat quickly like the sharp ending of one of their outdoor emergency brethren. This virus is a terribly long storm that we are reminded of day after day after day.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple solution? Wouldn’t it be nice to come out from the shelter? Wouldn’t it be nice to receive the all clear?
Slow the spread of violent pandemic politics
by Dave Berger09/08/2020. MinnPost
It is a simple one-word message: SLOW!
How many times have you passed by the little plastic neon green figure with the word “SLOW!” on its midriff? This “Kid Alert! Visual Warning Signal (V.W.S),” with its bright red cap and reflective orange flag, encourages us to be careful in our neighborhoods. It gives us a moment to pause and to think of others, to protect the vulnerable, and increase our mutual safety.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting social upheaval, we need to embrace this same advice to slow down in our everyday lives. The “new pandemic normal” is not just about social distancing and wearing face masks. It has also meant that extremism, violence, and the threat of violence have become more commonplace in our politics and social interactions. Thoughtful compromise and negotiation have been replaced with fear-driven “pandemic politics.”
More than we can remember in recent history, there are two sides of violent propagandist protagonists that are emerging from the politics swirling around the pandemic:
The “violent establishment advocates” claim that it is essential to violently defend the peace at any cost. That law and order are more important than racial and social justice. The threat becomes that violence is the only way to restore peace. These extremists believe that massive increases in police and paramilitary troops are necessary to maintain order. That the protection of property comes first. Such supporters of violence include fascists, white supremacists, militias, nationalists, sociopaths, and others.
The “violent change advocates” claim that racial and social justice cannot be obtained without severe violent disruption to our everyday lives. That white privilege must be eliminated forcibly. The threat becomes “No Justice; No Peace.” These extremists believe that massive property destruction in the name of justice is acceptable and inevitable. That property is not as valuable as lives. Such supporters of violence include anarchists, arsonists, looters, communists, sociopaths, and others.
Most of us, in normal times, realize that peace and justice must be achieved simultaneously. We also know that human life and property rights are both important. But this virus has not only ravaged the world economy by killing nearly 1 million people, it has also damaged our ability to reason, negotiate, and live in peace as well. The global pandemic has made us much more susceptible to the irrational political perspectives of the extreme right and the extreme left; of the up and the down; of the backward and the forward. We now ride every day on a roller coaster of unsustainable social and emotional upheaval leap frogging from one sensational news or social media story to another.
We need to slow down and realize that we are caught between two unhinged sides of violent extremists that want to infect us with their irrationality. The chaos of today has tenderized a large portion of our population into becoming blindly reactive instead of thoughtfully reflective. So many are now willing to jump to conclusions without waiting for all the facts. This has led to chaos, death, and destruction on all sides with unfounded rumors triggering both “social justice” riots and establishment “law and order” over reactions.
Such extreme bi-polarized politics are based upon the reliance on a mythic “they.” “They” don’t care about others. “They” just want to get “their” way. “They” cannot be reasoned with since “they” are too stupid to see reality. “They” are evil and must be stopped by all means necessary, including violence.
But who really are “they?” In many cases, doesn’t the political opposition include many of our family, friends, and neighbors? Political disagreement today no longer features a marketplace of ideas and civil debate. Now, it has become a dangerous game of chicken that uses violence, name-calling, and stereotyping.
What will happen if the candidate you back loses the election? Will the world come to an end? Think about how you will cope if the opposition wins. Will you accept the results of the election? If you cannot see this possible future, you are trapped deeply in extreme pandemic politics and are primed to support thoughtless violence in the future.
What we need is that little neon green figure as our mascot for 2020. We need to calm the violence and extremism in our nation and in our hearts by following the warning to SLOW! Instead of racing about uncontrolled in this era of anger, frustration, and fear, we need to seek time for reflection. We all need a moment to pause and to think of others, to protect the vulnerable, and increase our mutual safety.
Only by better understanding the politics of those we oppose can we realize lasting peace and change. They are not the enemy. They are fellow members of our community.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College.
Extremist pandemic politics are being fueled by era of disease
By Dave Berger
September 25, 2020 at 1:00 PM
What will happen if the candidate you back loses the upcoming election? Do you believe our nation will be undermined? Take a moment to think about how you will cope if the opposition wins. Will you accept the results of the election?
If you cannot see this possible future, you are trapped deeply in pandemic politics.
The long length, breadth, and width of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic seems to have few limits. The resulting uncertainty of this era of disease has made us all more susceptible to two extreme political positions. These dual opposing narratives are mutually exclusive:
Establishment advocates claim that what is needed is a return to the way life was before the pandemic — as soon as possible. This position stresses individual freedom and rights. In-person schools and sports should resume as soon as possible so we and our children can live normal lives. The bottom line is that our pre-pandemic society was just and the nation should now be reopened with individuals making informed choices about what behaviors they wish to engage.
Social change advocates, on the other hand, claim that immediate and significant changes are needed to obtain racial and social justice. This position stresses collective freedom and rights. In-person schools and sports should not resume until scientific evidence suggests it is safe for the whole society. The bottom line is our pre-pandemic society was unjust and the nation should now protect its most vulnerable members by restricting individual behaviors.
Most of us, in normal times, realize that our pre-pandemic society could have been improved in terms of racial, economic, and social justice. We also know that individual and collective rights are equally important. But this virus has not only ravaged the world economy by killing nearly 1 million people, it also has damaged our ability to reason, negotiate, and live in peace.
The global pandemic has made us much more susceptible to the irrational political perspectives of the extreme right and the extreme left and of the up and the down and backward and forward. We now ride every day on a rollercoaster of unsustainable social and emotional upheaval, leapfrogging from one sensational news or social-media story to another.
Such extreme division in our politics is based upon the use of the mythic “they.” “They” don’t care about others. “They” just want to get “their” way. “They” cannot be reasoned with since “they” are too stupid to see reality. “They” are evil and must be stopped by all means.
But who really are “they?” In many cases, doesn’t the political opposition include many of our family, friends, and neighbors? Political disagreement today no longer features a marketplace of ideas and civil debate. Now, it has become a dangerous game of chicken that uses violence, name-calling, and stereotyping.
We need to build up an immunity to the extreme sensationalism being created by the political extremes. Take a step back. Slow it down. One side is not communist and the other is not fascist. Have an opinion. Have a strong opinion. Vote for and support your favorite side or candidate, but stop demonizing the other side and, by implication, everyone who supports that other side or other candidate.
We need to inoculate ourselves with reflective reason before this fall’s election. We need to take a step back and understand the political opposition a little bit more. We need to realize “they” are not the enemy; “they” are fellow members of our community.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College.
Pandemic adds social anxiety to certainty of death, taxes
By Dave Berger
November 30, 2020 at 12:00 PM
There are millions of Americans in a panic who believe the U.S. presidential election is being stolen.
Many believe the incumbent is trying to steal the election by bringing frivolous and unfounded lawsuits, refusing to concede the election based on false claims of massive voter fraud with no evidence, and using the Department of Justice as his own personal weapon.
Many others believe the challenger is trying to steal the election through unsolicited mail-in ballots “harvested” from nursing homes, the support of biased voting officials who only count “problem” ballots confirming his victory, and not allowing objective poll watchers so that slanted voting machines and other fraudulent vote-counting techniques can be used behind closed doors.
Many of us thought the election would bring some calm to our society. Unfortunately, the election aftermath has exposed a seemingly endless and colossal level of social anxiety throughout our nation. All elections bring division and uncertainty, but in this time of pandemic those small bumps in the road have become insurmountable mountainous certainties.
Before the current milieu of social anxiety, most people tended to agree with the old idiom that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” In fact, the first known written usage of this idiom goes back over 300 years to 1716 when Christopher Bullock wrote and performed in a play titled “The Cob(b)ler of Preston” at the Theatre-Royal in London. In that farce, a lowly drunken shoemaker named Toby Guzzle dreamed he was a lord and an honorable justice of the realm. In his dream he believed his 15-year marriage to his wife Dorcas was just that, a dream. When she confronted him in the dream, saying she was sure she was his wife, he said to her: “You lye, you are not sure: for I say, Woman, ’tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes — therefore hold your Tongue, or you shall … be foundly whipt. … Why I was in a Dream for fifteen Years myself and dreamt I marry’d you — Dorcas.”
Our entire nation has been in a nightmarish dream during the length of this pandemic. Instead of seeing things rationally, so many of us now believe in the most anxiety-provoking political conspiracies. This constant state of panic was not encouraged by drink, as in the case of Toby Guzzle, but more by the altered states of our minds due to the stresses of the coronavirus and our lack of direct social interaction.
The necessary pandemic social restrictions have led to the loss of our better selves. We no longer have those deep in-person conversations that relax us and induce reflection. We no longer have meaningful collective experiences such as sports, theater, cinema, dining out, and family gatherings. Instead, we have substituted superficial electronic communication to maintain our social and business relationships. It is not surprising that social anxiety and mistrust of others have increased under such a limited form of virtual community.
The pandemic has, unfortunately, also reinforced the certainties of death and taxes. Death has become an evermore close companion for most of us as with the increasing numbers of those dying from COVID-19. Taxes will have to be raised to pay for the vaccines, treatments, and economic recovery.
It’s time to start waking up from this pandemic nightmare by realizing that social anxiety is not a certainty. We can choose not to fly into a panic with each new electoral conspiracy story published. The vaccines are coming, and treatments are improving. We must imagine a point in the next year where we can resume more normal social interaction.
We may not be able to avoid death and taxes, but we can control how we face them and the coronavirus: awake, rationally, and together.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College. He also is a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.
Pandemic transforms conspiracy theories into superspreader events
by Dave Berger, February 25, 2021, St Cloud Times
Plymouth
Most everyone now is getting used to using the phrase “new normal.” This concept describes how the pandemic has changed our basic ways of interacting, allowing us to move forward as a society. Washing hands more, six feet social distancing, wearing masks, massive testing and the distribution of vaccines have all been noted as necessary social changes.
However, the most significant social change that has become part of our “new normal” is the increase spread of false conspiracy theories. The preconditions were ripe. We already had “legitimate” news sources and political leaders claiming that anything they did not agree with was “fake news.” The next logical step was to replace gaps in the public’s knowledge base with unfounded conspiracy theories.
But why have these false narratives spread so quickly during the pandemic?
During this more than year-long unfolding of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, almost everyone has felt more and more powerless. The whole society is now living in a crime ridden area with few protections. They feel like they can be a victim of a drive by shooting at any time. The pandemic has become the criminal that can randomly snuff out any life, anytime, anywhere, any place.
Social scientists use the concept of “illusory pattern perception” to refer to the belief that conspiracy exists where there is none. It is a fancy way to say that people see connections of random events that do not exist. Various studies have shown that people who lack control or feel overwhelmed are much more likely to believe in false conspiracy theories.
There is little doubt the pandemic has left billions in our world feeling overwhelmed and without control over their own lives.
The spreading conspiracy theories for many gives them a false sense of empowerment by making sense of a senseless world. They give us simple “common sense” answers to very complex issues. They make us feel like we can regain control of our lives with simple actions or inactions.
One of the earliest conspiracy theories to spread like wildfire was that the pandemic was a politically motivated exaggeration created by opponents of the old regime. It was argued that the coronavirus was no more deadly than the flu, that masks would not help stop the spread, and that it would disappear as soon as the election was over. It was easy to believe these false conspiracy claims because it helped many regain a false sense of control over their lives.
A newer series of conspiracy theories surround the life-saving vaccines that have been developed. It is said that the new vaccines cause infertility, contain a microchip, will alter your DNA or may even cause the spread of the coronavirus. Just like the earlier pandemic conspiracy theories, these vaccine falsehoods have little to no scientific data that supports them. Just like the earlier conspiracy theories, they are also spreading at warp speed.
Vaccine conspiracy theories are by no means new. Way back in the late 1790s when British surgeon Edward Jenner first started using a vaccine to prevent smallpox, there was a conspiracy theory created that said patients would develop cow horns if they were inoculated since cowpox was used in the injection. After nearly 200 years of smallpox vaccinations, not only has no one grown cow horns but smallpox has all but been eradicated. Vaccines work.
The problem with science, including the field of medicine, is that it cannot provide ultimate clear, quick and indisputable answers. It’s just a reliable method of slowly collecting and analyzing data in a systematic manner. It has gaps and sputters with false leads all the time. The conspiracy folks love this because they can take the splinter or minority report and run wild with it.
We don’t want large crowds to gather in person because they will lead to superspreader events. But large groups of conspiracy theorists are gathering online to create their own ideological superspreader events. So much misinformation is spread on social media platforms and “official looking” websites that conspiracy theory spreads faster than scientific results.
No matter how inaccurate, these theories will continue to spread until all of us challenge the “facts” that are believed by our own friends and family. The “new normal” must include each of us dealing with conspiracy theories as we encounter them. We should stop defriending or blocking “crazy conspiracy nuts” in our own social online circles, but instead engage them and become their own personal fact checkers.
The new battlefield to defeat this pandemic is well beyond the medical front line. It is now in our own personal lives. Each of us must become a firewall against the further spread of false and damaging conspiracy theories.
Dave Berger of Plymouth is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College.
Pandemic journey nears end: There’s no place like home
From the column: “But was our pre-pandemic world the technicolor utopia we now remember?”
By Dave Berger
March 19, 2021 at 8:00 AM. Duluth News Tribune
We’ve been on a long and arduous journey this past year. Only if we reach back more than 12 months can we remember what it was like before the pandemic descended upon our world. It’s time now to reflect and take stock during this sorrowful one-year anniversary and to also look forward to returning home to our old lives.
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. At that point, 118,000 people in 114 countries had contracted the disease with 4,300 fatalities. Today, roughly a year later, there are more than 119 million people in 185 countries who have contracted the disease with more than 2.6 million fatalities.
These numbers paint a startling picture of a pandemic that spread like wildfire across the globe. Our lives changed so quickly and completely. It was like we were all caught up in a whirlwind that transported us to a dark land of sadness, anxiety, and pain.
This year of pandemic has been like something out of the classic 1939 MGM musical “The Wizard of Oz.” Like Dorothy and Toto, we have been transported against our will and without warning to a frightening place fraught with unknown dangers. Like those fictional characters, we have also found companions to join us on our journey.
Unlike Dorothy and Toto, we are not dreaming an escape from a dreary and drab sepia-tinted black-and-white Kansas to the colorful Land of Oz. For many, our pre-pandemic world was a color-rich wonderland that faded into a dreary and drab sepia-tinted black-and-white Land of Pandemic. Unfortunately, unlike the young girl and her dog, our journey was not a dream but very much a stark reality full of sadness and death.
The film was based on L. Frank Baum’s book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” published in 1900. In the book, Dorothy states: “No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.” Indeed, most of us desperately want to go home.
It is so very true that we now inhibit a minimalist world lacking many freedoms and benefits we once enjoyed. It has been a year without color, warmth, and closeness. But was our pre-pandemic world the technicolor utopia we now remember?
Baum wrote about how the people of the Emerald City were given a little help to believe how beautiful their city was. Each was required to wear green-tinted glasses to enrich their views of their world. As the Wizard of Oz states, “My people have been wearing green glasses on their eyes for so long that most of them think this really is an Emerald City.”
By all means, it is time for us to return home from this dreary Land of Pandemic. But we must return prepared to see our world more accurately without the tinted glasses. We do need to appreciate the wonderful things we did have, but we also need to be realistic that we have a long way to go to reach a lovely home for all.
We collectively have realized that we have the courage to defeat the disease, that we have the brains to outwit it by creating safe and effective vaccines, and that we have the heart to care for one another through the worst event of our generation.
We have come together. We clicked our heels together three times. We were challenged, and we discovered that all we had to do was believe in ourselves and we could win, defeat the virus, and return home.
Dave Berger of Plymouth, Minnesota, is a retired sociology professor who taught for nearly three decades at Inver Hills Community College. He also is a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page.
