The Psychology of Compliance
The company had decided to mandate all its employees, not just the ones whose roles fell under the government's Vaccination Order 2021. There is a term for that: anticipatory obedience. The term means doing what you think will please a draconian authority before you've even been asked for it. It is worth stating that no one, whether friend, colleague or employer, ever explained to me their pro-vaccination stance with facts and figures. That wasn't what motivated them to toe the line: it was obedience to authority. "We are doing as we are being told," said the woman in the gym class to me, months prior to being diagnosed with cancer. And dare I say such misplaced trust motivated the vast majority of the population to accept and go along with historically unprecedented measures prescribed by our government.
— Felix, from "Doing More Than We Are Told"
The Trauma of Professional Exile
I was informed by the Principal and Board of Trustees that my role was terminated, and I was not allowed back on site under any circumstances. If I did venture back onto school grounds, police would be called to remove me. I couldn't believe it. I was still in the process of marking exam scripts and wanted to return them along with verbal feedback to senior students myself. More than those mundane tasks was the desire to say goodbye to the many students and staff I had shared much with during my teaching time, but that was not possible either. The intense shock, sense of betrayal and loss when I was told to go cannot be described. I was forced to leave the school I had poured heart and soul into, a pariah, one not worthy of even a goodbye. I felt stripped to soul nakedness.
— Adriana, from "A Science Teacher's Odyssey"
The Dehumanisation of the "Other"
I ran into J… the conversation got on to covid: "So you're not vaccinated," he said. "No," I replied. "Why wouldn't you get vaccinated?" "Look, the way I see it, there are two risks here — one is covid, and the other is the vaccine." "The trouble is with you lot, you are so selfish… And you're not even wearing a mask." "I am no risk to anyone. I am perfectly healthy. And masks don't stop a microscopic virus." "I can't wait for covid to get here so that all the unvaccinated will die!" I stared at him in disbelief. Did he realise what he had just said? He literally just wished me dead in the middle of a supermarket.
— Desna, from "The Long Way Home"