Do we have a choice about wearing a mask or not?!

Opinion on the internet about wearing masks during the pandemic:

“Sounds all so easy but for some it’s not as easy as for other to wear a mask. I can definitely not imagine to work with a mask and wear and 8 hours a day.
Can we please accept everyones feelings and not just of one side. We always need pick who is in right and the other one is automatically wrong.
I am happy Canada does not force me to wear one inside Grocery stores. I keep my distance and try to be not close to people at all.
People please stop calling people mean things only because they don’t feel comfortable wearing a mask. I just can’t stand it. I can’t. It makes it harder if people around look at me in a certain way.
I care about people a lot but I also want that they care for me even I don’t wear a mask. Otherwise we are moving in a direction right now where everyone is against everyone. For pretty little reasons.”

I agree with you that we are all different and we all have to respect our differences. But in a fully integrated, interdependent world we have certain responsibilities that override our individual uniqueness, freedom.

On the other hand - without trying to contradict you - I am a surgeon and have to wear a mask, and many times a lead apron as well for certain operations that can last multiple hours. And there are other professions where people have to wear even more complex protective wear. So it is possible.

But let us forget about masks as they are only certain symbols right now, and there is still debate about their actual efficiency.

The issue is mutual responsibility. If authorities responsible - rightly or wrongly - decide that we all need to wear a mask, as by this we not only protect ourselves but we protect others as well, we don’t have a choice.

In a fully integrated, interdependent world we simply don’t have a choice as we are fully dependent on reach other and we are 100% responsible towards each other.

So far everybody only cared about not catching the virus, but not many people cared about not passing it into others, as according to our inherently self-serving, self-justifying and subjective nature we simply don’t care about others and we definitely don’t want to inconvenience ourselves for their sake.

Unfortunately at this stage, when there is a pandemic, and doctors, microbiologists think that the masks offer protection against the spread, we simply can’t decide for ourselves that we don’t wear them. If one can’t wear them for medical reasons (not because it is inconvenient), then that person has to stay at home!

We have no choice, we will have to learn what it means that we all depend on each other and that we are obligated by it integral evolutionary conditions to be 100% responsible for one another.

This is what Nature’s laws of integration - sustaining balance and homeostasis - dictate.