Many years ago I wandered into the local vege/fruit store and found myself in a conversation with the bananas. Sure I always talk to bananas at 7:00 am. After a bit of verbal foreplay, the bananas then asked me to pick up one of their own. Why not, I said. The banana hijinks started slowly but each request was a bit more outlandish than the last. Then the bananas asked that I use their friend as a microphone. Warning, warning, warning. Then the bananas nicely suggested I put that banana in my mouth as if it were the most natural thing to do. Their coaxing tone conveyed a hope beyond hope that I would stop laughing and comply. Oh please, please, make my day, the bananas intoned. I did not make the bananas’ day. While I had been happy to play along, no good could come from sticking that banana in my mouth. With much hilarity, people came out of their hidey holes and announced “You are on Candid Camera”. It was one of the funniest 15 minutes of my life.
I had not thought of my TV debut in years. Then corona hit and the talking bananas came to mind. My subconscious was onto it. The incremental behavior control we have experienced is very similar to a candid camera set up. Whether intentional or not and without regard to merit, we have all been subjects of a mass social engineering experiment.
The initial CDC gathering guidelines seemed reasonable. No gatherings with more than 250 people, keep the density down, no more than 10 people for vulnerable folks, no mass gatherings in areas of significant community spread. Then on March 15, news organizations stated the CDC had revised their group guidelines to a maximum 50. March 16, Trump issued guidelines limiting all gatherings to 10 people. Everything tumbled from there. Some prohibit gatherings of any size. It is a crime to enter many public areas by yourself. Bans can be found on swimming, wandering, boating, thinking. Monroe County issued a quarantine order for anyone arriving from anywhere. Break quarantine and go immediately to a corona filled jail. Michigan is an excellent example of the candid camera strategy. The governor recently issued an edict that carpeting, flooring, furniture, plants and paint were no longer essential and the citizens were forbidden to shop for these items in store. Corona is one crafty bit of work. How did the governor know corona now hides in paint cans?
When will folks reach their banana in the mouth moment? Many Americans already have. Protests have occurred in Michigan, North Carolina and Kentucky with more on the books. Sadly, there is yet another serious divide developing between the protestors and those who are happy to put the banana in their mouth. It will be curious to see if this break mirrors the existing divides that are already tearing our country apart. And I am quite interested in masks and how they relate to bananas…
Details
- The initial CDC guideline referenced above can be found here. Interestingly I could find no official CDC document that revised the maximum size of gatherings from 250 to 50. News outlets reported this change.
- A friend clued me into the concept of “incrementalism”. I found it to be a worthwhile detour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incrementalism. If incrementalism was purposefully utilized, after reading the last sentence, the powers that be missed the mark. “The political scientist Charles E. Lindblom developed Incrementalism in the mid 1950s. “The Science of Muddling Through” (1959), was an essay Lindblom wrote to help policymakers understand why they needed to consider a different approach when making policy changes. The goal for the new perspective of Incrementalism was for policy makers to avoid making changes before they really engaged and rationally thought through the issue.[3]”