A new class of therapists are going through training and tonight's lecture is about human psychology, past and present, when it came to the sciences and medical treatment. They were to watch an info video on humans in the early 21st century and their reactions to life-prolonging measures such as getting vaccinations to prevent disease, and wearing masks to try to control viral spreads during pandemics. And this, then was compared to the behaviors seen in the modern day. -- DaniAndShali
The picture was of a bench in a park with a sign attached that read WET PAINT and a nearby weatherproof box with a sign that read, Paper towels and wet wipes for the folks who didn't believe me. The handle of the box was covered in handprints in the same colour as the bench.
The lecturer waited for the laughter to die down. "This is not a staged image for the purposes of environmental storytelling. This is a real chain of circumstance that encapsulates the quintessence of Human nature. Any given Human can, has, and will choose to disbelieve a fact when it is deemed by them to be inconvenient to them."
Now the image showed an image from a pre-Shattering protest. An angry man was screaming and holding up a sign bearing the picture of a disposable surgical face mast with a 'no' circle around it. The words said, MY BODY MY CHOICE! "Even when their arguments are co-opted from a movement they had strenuous opposition to." The image zoomed out, showing the man was wearing a T-shirt with the legend, Pro Life for Love. "Thus, getting a Human to act in their own self-interest, let alone the common good. How to get through to them can be an exercise in frustration."
Another image, this time in sepia, of three people wearing fabric masks, one of them wearing a sign that read, Wear a mask or get arrested. One of the taller figures had a hand balled into a fist. "Even when their species has been through similar threats in their recent history. Once a century, the Terrans of Earth faced a pandemic that killed in phenomenal numbers. However, the simplest of measures to prevent the spread of such pandemics are greeted with hostility. Why? Because Humanity despises abrupt change."
This image was a Bingo Card, allegedly for Pandemics, and the center square held a Star of David, with the words, Free Space and Antisemitism above and below. "That said, there's enough evidence that certain things never change in regards to Human society's approach to the centennial pandemics." Now the slide were the words, How to Create Proper Behaviour? "Which leads us to this question. How do we make Humans behave in a way conducive to everyone's well-being when handling abrupt changes in behaviour is their weakest facility?"
"To be honest," said the lecturer, "We're still working on that part." A plethora of signs, in GalStand and variations of Terran languages. All centred around decontamination necessities. There were two options, decontaminate and accept treatment, or seal oneself in a livesuit for the duration of their stay. "How many times a week has station and transit facilities received attempted legal action based on these signs? Anyone care to guess?"
The first estimates were conservative. Five per enclosed environment, ten, fifteen... For each guess, the lecturer shook their head and pointed upwards. Finally, someone hit the magic number at one hundred. "That's the average, though there is a study involving the proximity to Deregger space." This time, the visual aid was a graph. Proximity to Deregger planets had a solid impact on the numbers for litigious activity were astronomical for Galactic stations and transits close to Dereggers, but petered off quickly the further they got away.
The lowest number was fifteen.
"Even in the furthest reaches of Galactic space, there are still a frighteningly large volume of Humans who would rather exercise their right to spread disease and ruin a station's biota than respect anyone else's right to a healthy life. If anyone has any bright ideas on how to reduce this number," they pointed to the final fifteen, "to zero, I would be very glad to hear it. After we have covered every single previous attempt and why it failed. That, my assembled cogniscents, is a course that takes three Standard Weeks, starting tomorrow. For reading, the first three chapters of The Human Paradox are available for free download care of the course infonet site."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Baz777]
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