Doesn’t this explain a lot about our present moment though? Individualism has been in the ascendancy for decades now, so it is no surprise that marriage is no longer about us. It’s about me any my self-actualization.

Everything is about me, me, me. This explains our disastrous response to the pandemic. When masks are about self protection only an N95 will do. Yet cloth masks would protect the community just fine if everyone made the necessary sacrifices. As in no restaurants, no house parties or family gatherings involving food, gym only for those stalwart enough to work out masked. But no. It’s all about me and my rights. Responsibilities? What the fuck are responsibilities?

Similarly with vaccination. It’s not something you do or I do or even a collection of disjunct nation states attempts to persuade their reluctant citizens to do. It’s something we as a planet-wide species do.

We seem incapable of collective action. The movie Don’t Look Up had the right of it. It makes no difference how overwhelming the catastrophe that looms. We run around like ants when the stone is upturned. I fear for my species.