A hostile environment

Another unexpected aspect of culture shock is the degree to which the anti-mask deniers here, amid record case numbers, make me feel different about leaving the apartment. In Scotland I had simply accepted a routine of sanitizers, masks, etc. but, each time I go out here in Tennessee, even though everybody has been very pleasant to me, it feels much more as if I am heading out into a hostile post-apocalyptic environment, and that is without also thinking of the threat of post-election violence next week.

Somehow, my preparations — sanitizing the controls of my new car before taking it from the dealership last week, handwashing my reusable masks this morning, etc. — now feel more like defense against danger rather than simply being sensible public health precautions. I had not anticipated this change in my mindset and my best guess is that it is due to the many who protest the need for such measures and, more, the officials courting their vote.

I might have also suspected that this change is because much of the dystopian fiction I have consumed is set in the US except for that we have had a fair bit set in England too, thanks to authors like John Christopher and John Wyndham, also the various Cold-War-era media exploring the English aftermath of nuclear war. (Ha, and perhaps Mitchell and Webb's The Quiz Broadcast, set after The Event, deserves an honorable mention.)