World views and the virus

My community is in lockdown #5 as I write this blog post. Many countries have thousands more daily new COVID-19 cases than we do here in Australia and my heart goes out to them. Nevertheless, in this blog post, allow me to blinker my eyes and just focus on people in my own area. 

I’m thinking about world views and the virus at the moment. ‘Worldview’ (it can be written ‘worldview’ or ‘world view’) simply refers to how people view the world. We talk about it in missions training, urging those preparing to cross cultures to proactively strive to understand how local people in the places they visit view the world.

The contexts in which we live or grow up impact our worldviews. Just think about how people of different cultures view status and authority, the importance of community, child-raising philosophies, the interaction of the spirit world with our daily lives, what we consider to be the causes of disease and more.

It strikes me, however, that right here, right now, I see people in my own neighbourhood who have very different world views in relation to the pandemic. I wonder if this is, in part, because the communities to which we belong are less defined by geography these days and more defined by networks and the biases of our sources of information. 

I am making this observation not only as a matter of interest (to myself, at least) but also as a reminder that those in my own communities who have a different worldview to myself are still people just like me. I can be quick to judge people who think differently to myself as ill-informed and ignorant. Even though I may not agree with everyone, seeking to understand how people around me view the world is surely a more respectful and appropriate response to opinions and actions that I view as odd … especially for a cross-cultural worker. 

Neighbours

Let me describe two neighbours who exemplify two different worldviews of people in my own community. Neither of them are literal descriptions of any particular person I know personally … though I have met people like them. 

Jenalyn stands outside the vaccination centre, unmasked, with a sign declaring, ‘The vaccine will change your DNA! Don’t get it.’ Only when a police officer arrives does she reluctantly accept the proffered mask and walk away. Not for her are QR codes in venues she visits. No, she doesn’t want the government tracking her every movement. As for hand sanitisers provided at the entrance of every shop, she would rather build up her immunity than leave herself vulnerable to any new bug that comes along. 

Giselle glares at the young woman who stepped in front of her in the supermarket to grab a can of tomatoes. “Do you mind?” she asks, her voice quavering. She tries to protest without inhaling germ-ridden air. Gloved and masked, wearing glasses primarily to protect her eyes from viruses, she is doing her weekly grocery shopping. A 12-pack of toilet rolls takes up half the trolley. She longs to get to the relative safety of home, where she will quarantine everything in a big box on the porch for a couple of days before bringing it inside. Everything except for the fridge and freezer items, that is, which she will thoroughly soak in disinfectant spray. Only then will she will strip off of her outside clothes, throw them into the washing machine, and shower.  

Environments

Our worldviews are significantly impacted by our environments. In our modern hyper-connected world, we can live remarkably similar lives and yet be surrounded by vastly different sources of information. We live in similar physical environments but dissimilar online environments. That, in turn, impacts how people like Jenalyn and Giselle think about the pandemic and associated restrictions, as well as how they feel. 

Jenalyn gets her news from a ‘right-wing’ news service. She wants real information rather than biased propaganda. She opens her laptop and the home screen flashes up with a news headline about yet another person in a different part of the country dying a week or so after receiving a vaccination. Her social media notifications alert her to a string of posts from people remarkably similar to herself complaining bitterly about how unreasonable restrictions are robbing us of freedom. Jenalyn clenches her teeth, rolls her eyes and grumbles emphatically.

Giselle watches the news on a free-to-air TV station. The hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed, she learns, and another person in her city has died from COVID-19. She opens her lap top and the home screen flashes up with a news headline about yet more exposure sites, including a supermarket a mere 15 kilometres from her home. She moves to social media. A string of posts from people remarkably similar to herself share news reports from around the world, including photographs of funeral pyres and mass graves. Giselle’s heart leaps into her throat and tears roll down her cheeks.

So what?

These two examples are a little extreme. I like to think that I am logical and reasonable when it comes to the pandemic. (And I have had one vaccination which gives me a certain sense of security. I look forward to receiving my second shot.) In any case, the point of this blog post is not to promote one extreme or the other. The point is to think about two things: (1) world views,  and (2) how I view people who look at the world differently to myself. 

People in my own suburb are surrounded by different sources of information. We frequent different online communities. Algorithms direct our way yet more of the sort of news and information that we have chosen to to access in the past. All this reinforces the way we think. In fact, having done a little ‘internet research’ on news providers with extreme views on the pandemic in the process of writing this blog, no doubt I shall be bombarded for a time with such news myself. Our free-to-air media in Australia, at least, is quite sensationalist and not unbiased either. 

May I be quick to view others who think differently to myself with the same degree of curiosity and a desire to learn as I view those who come from very different cultures to myself. I’m not saying that I agree with people like either Jenalyn or Giselle.  However, may I treat them with respect and not scorn them.

In writing this blog post, I have also been reminded to be thoughtful and deliberate in what I choose to put into my own mind.  To a degree, I am responsible for managing my own worldview as far as the pandemic is concerned, at least. 

As a Christian, I am reassured to know that there is One who sees Reality without being swayed by this or that. That impacts my worldview in the best possible way in the uncertainties of our virus-ridden world.