As lockdown eases and sporting events draw people together, new books offer insights into how to live among others again – and the surprising benefits of interacting with strangers
There should be a new word for that strange mix of hope and alarm inspired by the sight of a post-lockdown crowd. How lovely to see Wembley and Wimbledon’s Centre Court almost full. But do people have to stand quite so close together? Must their singing be quite so lusty? Do they really need to put each other in friendly headlocks when someone scores? Well, yes – that’s what fans do at sporting events. But as life opens up, many of us have forgotten how to behave around those we don’t know. The etiquette must be relearned. How far apart should we stand? When can we chat casually with strangers again, if we ever did it in the first place? Is shaking hands now abolished? The politics of mask-wearing, already fractious, will become more so as shops, buses and trains fill up.
Covid has shone an unforgiving light on our already strained relations with strangers. Recent surveys reveal a steep decline in social trust and hardened attitudes towards immigrants, refugees and others deemed to be outsiders. The post-cold war capitalist dream of a borderless world has ended in a wave of wall building and the strict policing of borders and migration routes. Our broken politics and culture wars mean that conversations between strangers on contentious subjects often move quickly into rancour and name-calling.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3hTYTzY
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