Opinion: America Was Set Up For Failure — Or Why The U.S. Can’t Seem to Handle COVID and Why You Should Care More About Others
In January, it will have been a full year since the first American was diagnosed with COVID-19. Since then, 275,000 people and counting have died from the virus within the United States. That is 20% of all global deaths. The United States only has 5% of the world’s population. For a virus that many claim is “practically harmless”, why is the United States doing so poorly when it comes to controlling it and the deaths it has caused?
When the U.S. constitution was written, a small document entitled “The Bill of Rights” was added to form a compromise between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Through this group of Amendments, the founders indoctrinated the United States as a land of freedoms (including, and not limited to, the freedoms of speech, assembly, press, protest and religion). Over the years, these freedoms have been stretched in ways that the founders most likely did not intend. This has lead to an era of misinformation and manipulation on both sides of the aisle. People claim “freedom of speech” when they spew false information on social media about why “masks aren’t protecting you” and how “COVID is just a government conspiracy”. (News flash: both statements are inherently false, you can reference cdc.gov for that). Freedom of speech has gone from making sure that the government cannot silence anyone to the uneducated and falsely-informed believing they can say whatever they want without facing consequence — a consequence that, in the terms of COVID misinformation, is death. People go out and share this false information and lack the empathy or understanding to comprehend the implications of what they saying.
This lack of empathy comes from the United State’s emphasis on an individualistic society. Americans, on average, believe that nothing should be done for other people and that everyone has to look out for themselves. Ask the average middle-class, white American if they believe that the government should aid the poor, and you will most likely get a form of “the government shouldn’t give handouts”, “success is something you should build for yourself”, or “they should just work harder”. The United States has so propagandized this capitalistic, individualistic society where people don’t care about those around them, that Americans see any form of cooperation or empathy and immediately cry “socialism” and “fascism” but these same people will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance without so much as a second thought. The U.S. government, its leaders, and its education system has created a population of people who are so entirely selfish that the idea of staying home to not infect those around them with a deadly disease is seen as “infringing on their basic rights”.
How can the United States break this curse of individualism and stop the spread of COVID? It might be too late for us. As some Americans prepare to spend a Thanksgiving holiday with only those in their immediate family, there are thousands that are traveling and holding giant Thanksgiving dinners as if nothing has changed between this year and last year despite months and months of news and government agencies telling them to limit their time with other people. There is no end-all cure for this creed of American selfishness — we are too far gone. The best we can do is to look out for our neighbors and those around us, practice a bit more empathy, wear our masks, and stay home.
