Fractals and COVID — How our personal affects our global
For me, there is no better example of the dangers of ignoring fractals than the 2020 pandemic: A super-contagious virus that spreads as a result of individual actions that end up reflected on a global scale.
In fact, I wasn’t even reading about fractals when I stopped to consider this. I was reading this paragraph from Spells and Practices for Emergent Strategy:
“[Somatics] is a methodology for transformation that helps us understand that change doesn’t come simply from thinking differently. The process involves shifting what we understand, what we can feel, and what we practice, reconnecting us with the incredible data and resilience of the body. Somatics talks about the body as three billion years of evolutionary wisdom.”
I had to laugh (darkly). Three billion years of evolutionary wisdom and yet we won’t wear self-preserving and other-preserving masks.*
I understand that leadership has been faulty and floundering. The Trump administration refuses to take any responsibility in thwarting the uncontrollable spread that we now see, and the refusal of state governments to put lives before politics and mandate mask requirements has resulted in even more confusion. Many local governments have in fact taken far more precautions than our state or federal governments have. For those of us in New Orleans, we have seen Mayor Cantrell wrestle pushback against her refusal to allow New Orleans to become a hotspot in Louisiana.
The failure of national leadership to institute clear guidelines has resulted in a process referred to as responsibilization, where governments and actors who should be in charge of mandating actions or taking responsibility instead punt the responsibility to other individuals (us). For example, the CDC and the United States government recommend not traveling for Thanksgiving but leave the final decision up to individuals, trusting that they’ll use their best judgment. But the US government failed to consider that there are those that are reckless and irreverent, and that these individuals are our greatest threat.
Many individuals have been quoted across the media stating that the “choice” to wear a mask is their own, and any mandate dictating otherwise is an infringement of their rights. (First and foremost, how much privilege do you carry if wearing a mask is your greatest oppression?) But, even if we enter an alternative universe where that statement is true, wouldn’t you accept an infringement of the “right” to have your face exposed if it meant saving your neighbor? Wouldn’t you forgo one Thanksgiving so that everyone in your family can be at the next?
This is what truly baffles me: the refusal of Americans to be individually uncomfortable in order to protect the lives (rights?) of millions of others. This is even more infuriating when I consider the fact that I’ve been quarantining since March. I know I am not alone when I say that my nuclear family and I have been at the receiving end of vitriol from other family members when we’ve refused to attend family functions during the pandemic.
“There is no constitutional right to shop for pork rinds, without a mask, at Walmart.” Michael J. Stern, Opinion Columnist at USA Today
I have a few friends living in Australia, spanning from Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, and they’ve all expressed shock, fear, and disgust at the way that Americans have handled the pandemic. They’ve also all mentioned how their “lockdowns,” while uncomfortable, were short-lived because they were strict and everyone made sacrifices for the collective good. Curfews, closure of non-essential businesses, and monthly support checks from the government made sure that everyone could stay safe and supported throughout the closures.
Earlier this year a friend in Ireland said that their bars were to remain closed indefinitely. He joked how serious that was: “Ireland. Shutting down pubs 👀and yet Americans r complaining about wearing masks haha.”
I guess the refusal of Americans to protect one another shouldn’t be surprising, as we are presently living in one of the most shameless and hate-fueled presidencies in our history. Trump’s rule has heightened individualist thinking and emboldened behavior that defies our human intelligence. And this thinking is reflected in the way that COVID has spread throughout the nation. (Here is where we get to fractals).
The CDC has said that small gatherings of individuals helped to accelerate the COVID-19 spike. Small gatherings. Where a limited number of individuals made both individual and collective decisions to get together. And these individuals then impacted their communities by potentially spreading COVID before they knew they were contagious.
As seen from the diagram below, the individual is truly reflected on the global, as the infected individual has replicated the experience of the virus beyond their personal network, and into the network of other individuals that they have routine or semi-routine exposure to.
Now, compare that diagram to this classic fractal example below:
Eerily similar, no?
It’s a reminder, too, that we are only as strong as our most threatened individuals (or weakest systems!) and that we should all be operating to protect those individuals — including immunocompromised individuals, uninsured individuals, and elderly individuals. Refusal to do so places more burden on the individuals who have the fewest amount of resources and allows the wanton and reckless to continue threatening the lives of others.
Refusal of individuals to consider their role in the larger fractal results in unacceptable, unnecessary, and preventable deaths. Refusal of the government to take responsibility for its failures results in greater and more persistent threats — including a longer timeline of exiting this pandemic.
As we see COVID cases rise and brace for the unsurprising yet still shocking spike expected to come two weeks after Thanksgiving, let us be reminded that our personal affects our global, and act with our fractal impact in mind.
*Obviously, this is not what amb intended for us to take away from this quote, but this was my immediate reaction and this quote caused me to return to the chapter on fractals with consideration of COVID19.
