What social solidarity demands of us in a pandemic

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2020

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is no doubt that social distancing is the best way to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But the efficacy of social distancing (or really any other public health measure) relies on something much deeper and harder to measure: social solidarity. “Solidarity,” writes Eric Klinenberg, “motivates us to promote public health, not just our own personal security. It keeps us from hoarding medicine, toughing out a cold in the workplace or sending a sick child to school. It compels us to let a ship of stranded people dock in our safe harbors, to knock on our older neighbor’s door.” Klinenberg, a sociologist by trade, is the director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. His first book, Heat Wave, found that social connection was, at times, literally the difference between life and death during Chicago's 1995 heat wave. Since then, he’s spent his career studying trends in American social life, from the rise of adults living alone to the importance of “social infrastructure” in holding together our civic bonds. This conversation is about what happens when a country mired in a mythos of individualism collides with a pandemic that demands social solidarity and collective sacrifice. It’s about preventing an epidemic of loneliness and social isolation from overwhelming the most vulnerable among us. We discuss the underlying social trends that predated coronavirus, what kind of leadership it takes to actually bring people together, the irony of asking young people and essential workers to sacrifice for the rest of us, whether there’s an opportunity to build a different kind of society in the aftermath of Covid-19, and much more. References Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone by Eric Klinenberg Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg “We Need Social Solidarity, Not Just Social Distancing” by Eric Klinenberg “Marriage has become a trophy” by Andrew Cherlin Book recommendations: Infections and Inequalities by Paul Farmer Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Dukheim Confused about coronavirus? Here’s a list of the articles, papers, and podcasts we’ve found most useful. New to the show? Want to check out Ezra’s favorite episodes? Check out the Ezra Klein Show beginner’s guide (http://bit.ly/EKSbeginhere) Credits: Producer/Editor - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.0	The fact that so many young people who are probably at low risk of having a personal catastrophic health outcome from COVID-19,
1:14.0	the fact that we're asking so much of them in this moment, I think can't help but shape our political debates in the years to come.
1:35.0	Hello and welcome to the Ezra Client Show on the Vox Media podcast network.
1:38.0	You have heard now for weeks the refrain social distancing get away from people.
1:44.0	We've covered on the show the trade off and may or may not have with the economy right social distancing is economic distancing.
1:50.0	But what about just what it is itself?
1:53.0	Forget for a moment the economic recession. What about the social recession the way in which the people in our society, particularly the elderly and the disabled, but not only them, the people most vulnerable already to isolation,
2:04.0	to loneliness and all the mental and very importantly physical health costs of those two things. What about them?
2:12.0	What happens to you if you're being told that for maybe the rest of the year who knows how long you who already didn't have nearly enough social contact in your life are going to have almost none.
2:22.0	What about the people who don't have family members who will set them up on Zoom who will reach out to them? What do we do for them? How do we help them?
2:29.0	How do we take the social recession as seriously as the economic recession because make no mistake when you take a human animal and take them out of community rip them out of community tell them to be afraid of other people.
2:42.0	It's going to hurt right you we are forcing people to live for their own safety in a way that is incredibly agonizingly abnormal.
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