Thank you for this very thoughtful and thorough philosophical explanation for why face masking/ muzzling is so unethical and detrimental to human beings sense of self. I’ve never experienced such anxiety as having to see so many people without faces, without the ability to communicate normally. Masking is very isolating, disturbing, dehumanizing and to me an extreme form of psychological torture. Covering our faces literally takes away our personhood. I also noticed that when people wear masks they make much less eye contact which is even further isolating. We must fight this dehumanizing agenda on all fronts.
I can imagine it was, and can relate because my hearing is not so great and I did not realize how much I rely on lip reading until I could not see peoples faces. It was scary.
Fascinating work. I plucked this out as the over riding result of these machinations: Any political system or government that limits the freedom to communicate and therefore the capacity to generate meaning, is on the path of self-destruction.
I appreciate your bringing up the dehumanizing aspect of masking. I linked “dehumanized” in my Mistakes Were NOT Made poem (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem) to this article on masking, which one commenter just described as “Probably the best article I have read since I joined Substack”:
Thank you for this very thoughtful and thorough philosophical explanation for why face masking/ muzzling is so unethical and detrimental to human beings sense of self. I’ve never experienced such anxiety as having to see so many people without faces, without the ability to communicate normally. Masking is very isolating, disturbing, dehumanizing and to me an extreme form of psychological torture. Covering our faces literally takes away our personhood. I also noticed that when people wear masks they make much less eye contact which is even further isolating. We must fight this dehumanizing agenda on all fronts.
Well-put, Joy. As damaging as masking was for communication/connection between hearing individuals, the impact on the Deaf community was catastrophic.
I can imagine it was, and can relate because my hearing is not so great and I did not realize how much I rely on lip reading until I could not see peoples faces. It was scary.
Fascinating work. I plucked this out as the over riding result of these machinations: Any political system or government that limits the freedom to communicate and therefore the capacity to generate meaning, is on the path of self-destruction.
I appreciate your bringing up the dehumanizing aspect of masking. I linked “dehumanized” in my Mistakes Were NOT Made poem (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem) to this article on masking, which one commenter just described as “Probably the best article I have read since I joined Substack”:
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-oregon-health-authority