Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
Of all the things that I have seen and heard as we’ve entered the Age of Coronavirus in the past couple of months, nothing has intrigued me more than the appearance of facemasks to protect oneself from the airborne transmission of the virus.
Mind you, I don’t like to actually wear masks. I don’t even like to put face cleanser on my face for too long, much less wear any type of facial make-up for any occasion.
(I do think that my preference of wearing glasses as opposed to contact lenses or to get corrective eye surgery does fulfill a need of wearing a mask, of sorts, but that would get deeper into my personal psychology than I would like to here.)
My best guess would be that my...fascination with masks (literally and as a metaphor) probably began with that Twilight Zone episode “The Masks.”
(one of my favorite episodes of any television show!)
That intrigue extended into psychological and emotional studies of how people wear emotional masks. As a classics major, the study of masks was one of my favorite things to study about the ancient Greek theatre
In The Souls of Black Folk, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois invoked “The Veil” as a fascinating leitmotif, of sorts, of his notion of the state of “double-consciousness” that all African Americans live in and with. Decades later, I revisited and, I think, revised some of my ideas of how a “veil” or a mask is supposed to function by reading Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (especially intriguing in Snow ws the idea that the young women desired wearing the head scarves in order to feel safe and protected: I don’t think that I ever considered the idea before).
Masks (literal or as metaphor) function in much the same way that walls (which can serve as a metaphor, as well) do.
Masks and walls offer a measure of protection and a feeling of safety.
Masks and walls can also serve the function of needing to hide.
Masks and walls can keep outside invaders from coming in. But masks and walls can also function to limit us from going out (in a typical Chicago January, do I stay in the warm house, or do I go out into the cold if I don’t have to?)
And then I think of the fact that from his presidential campaign until now, his 4th year as an occupant of the Oval Office, no image, no metaphor has gotten Donald Trump more political mileage than that of The Wall.
And, ironically enough, here we are, four years later, and many Americans (and people all over the entire world, even) are outfitting our bodies with masks/walls in order to survive (or so we think).
And Mexico ain’t paid a dime for these walls either. Fancy that.
Comments below the fold.
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From elenacarlena:
I nominate Treehuggeralways' comment in Angmar's RCAP diary ecause it's a sensitive expression of the pros and cons of the effects of coronavirus. Can those of us who survive come out of this pandemic better than we went into it?
From belinda ridgewood:
In Greg Dworkin's APR this morning, Rikon Snow was puzzled by the Toilet Paper Crisis. This led folks to consider the *residential "flush 10-15 times" remark, until Wailealeft logically reached the punchline.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 19, 2020, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for yesterday, March 19, 2020. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!