The fad for catch words has seen every major event in history being linked to some tag-line. Be it 'Boston Tea Party' that symbolised the first major revolt of Americans against East India Co. or nearer home the famed 'Dandi March' that mobilised millions of native Indians against British colonialism, or the more recent 'Brexit' symbolizing the parting of ways of the United Kingdom with EU.
Same way the term 'Social distancing' appears all set to symbolise the global war against Covid-19. The term perhaps finds its origin in Sociology which defines 'Social distance' as the level of acceptance people have of others outside their own social group or class.
However, Covid-19 has forced mankind to impart another connotation to the term and refers to ability of one to maintain safe distance from another be it within his/her own group/class.
While such a narrow meaning of the term may be a bit harsh on us human beings, a bit of introspection may perhaps reveal that we have over the years been conditioned mentally to deal with the new calling, possibly because of lifestyles which we ourselves chose to adopt.
With better education came better job opportunities and financial independence, and so did the desire for personal space. While the world shrunk with increased connectivity, individual mobility expanded multifold and resulted in four members of one family leading disparate lives at four corners of the world. While, virtual/online relationships saw new heights, meeting of one human with another in flesh and blood became rare. Even those who met mostly ended up as cases of familiarity breeds contempt, and chose to meet lesser often or simply stay away. Personal egos grew bigger than the roof shared, and need for individual space over shadowed all other needs.
While the latter part of 20th century saw the concept of joint family getting replaced by that of nuclear family, the new millennium witnessed real time threat to the very concept of a family, with those living together either remaining glued to gadgets in the confines of their rooms within the same house, or choosing to live separately in different homes. With each person leading a hermit life, social distancing as seen in the present times was never a new concept and many had already adopted this as their chosen path.
But, human behavior says that we gladly adopt a way of life on our own choice. But when same is thrust upon us by way of compulsion, we always tend to revolt against it and start craving for the very opposite.
Hope the present predicament makes us introspect on how far we drifted away from the concept of community living in the name of individuality.
Hope Covid-19 makes us realise that we as human beings were never meant to be lone wolves, and never meant to fight our battles alone. We as human beings were always meant to live together and live for each other.
