People in This

As I often say to parents and students wanting to know what sociology is, it is the study of society and what is society? well it's structures obviously but these structures wouldn't exist if it weren't for people. And people are what we are largely dealing with in all of This. Preventing their illness, their deaths. It is people who are afraid, suffering, anxious or losing loved ones.

So what are the reactions to a partial lock down? Phenomenologists believe that we make sense of the world and the changes that it brings by relying on past experiences. This is what a lot of people are doing. Sticking to a routine to make life as normal as possible. Like the student making his or her first home away from home as much like home as possible with posters etc British people are trying to keep a routine going. I'm in with this lot. Get up at 6am, exercise, wake kids at 7am, breakfast showers, then work at 8 til 4, having breaks to spend with the children and to give their mother respite. I still don't drink alcohol during the working week. Many people will have their own routines worked out. Older people will remember similar times although they may not be as long as this. The most I remember being confined in is two weeks snowed in.

There is also a pause effect going on. Some people are finding that their lives are paused. They don't have to move forward. They can spend time with their families, or enjoy simple pleasures, an old school friend of mine has taken up Airfix modelling of World War Two aeroplanes, something he hasn't done since his childhood.  There is also a dark side, women at home with abusive partners or husbands.Those who live alone, those with mental health issues. Also not everyone has the luxury of a pause. Some people have been thrown into public service in ways they may never have imagined. The NHS worker, the shop worker and many more. Their lives are very different now, their jobs far from routine as before.


There are also those who ignore government advice. Queuing in Morrison's last week I was behind two women who happily told me they's been to all of the supermarkets in town that morning, just to see what it was like. Cars drive by loaded with young people, music booming. I suspect they will become fewer as the weeks go on, this is new to them, this may be their version of a routine. The main issue is that we live in a society where our individualism and choice has been promoted really heavily.  In government we have a new right minister who told us not be trust in experts several years ago. Now he is stood behind a podium telling us very much to trust in experts. Individualism in a neo liberal or post modern sense of the word is ingrained in us all. Since the demolition of the post war consensus and deindustrialisation we have been encouraged to see ourselves as consumers. We are continuously marketed. Now we have to queue to get into a partially stocked supermarket. The government has become necessarily authoritative. It is telling us when we can shop rather than encouraging us to buy buy buy. But that ingrained  buying impulse is hard to shed off hence the panic buyers / hoarders. All we know is how to shop.  some of the perceived government failings are, i think, ideological.  A new right government doesn't find curbing liberty easy. The individualism it champions is hard to sanction. Perhaps that is why they were slow to move.  The libertarian philosopher Roger Scruton once said  of New Labour prime minister Tony Blair that he was naturally illiberal as he was of 'socialist stock'. Now there are hundreds of arguments we could have over that statement but one thing Scruton is correct on is that Labour always finds being authoritative easier - think NHS, Sure Start, minimum wage, fox hunting ban. New Labour were severe on foot and mouth in the early 2000s.  Many of Corbyn's state interventionalist ideas are now being enforced albeit in more palatable form.   But these are not political times, a government must act in the interest of the people. It's just that the people are used to their interests being more about themselves.

There is a great sense of community, people helping others, shopping for the vulnerable, clapping for the NHS, care workers locking themselves in with patients. Social solidarity is rife in many ways. There is a chance that our collective values as a society are being checked to see if they are still fit for purpose. Emile Durkheim would look  approvingly on this.

Social media, much derided of late, is proving necessary. FaceTime, Skype etc are keeping us in touch with others. WhatsApp groups, memes and so on helping people stay in touch. There are conspiracies on there too, people finding what they see as darker truths. It depends on how you use it.  this is an example of media saturation working for good. people can shop but now online. However if you want a food shop good luck. I've found that I've reconnected with people online in a way I didn't before. I'm lucky, I have the time.

There is a fear of what Durkheim called anomie , people feeling more marginalised, disconnected with others. The media both social and traditional plays a role here but is not a substitute for real social interaction. There will have to be something in place to remedy anomie.

At the moment our society continues, that slow evolution taking a slight detour. Weber once said Sunday worship would be replaced by the Sunday newspapers. With churches online, it is another type of media that has if not replaced it then changed it.