COVID-19 is Making Clear the Absurdity of Social Constructs

We are all 99.9% genetically the same. Our differences we created.

Photo by Siddhant Soni on Unsplash

The Coronavirus seems to be the only thing not adhering to our rules.

Does the Coronavirus not understand that there are country borders to recognize? That there are different government structures that define different societies? That there are different races with privilege differences? That there are socioeconomic statuses that pose different opportunities? That there are “right” and “wrong” religions out there? That people, depending on where they are from and what they look like and how they talk and who their family is and how old they are are different?

The Coronavirus seems to be the only thing these days that doesn’t care. It passes from person-to-person without giving it a second thought.

How dare it?

We have for generations as human beings tried our very hardest to define these differences and uphold them. Heck, we have fought a multitude of wars to convince ourselves which ones are truly the best. We have shown through elevating some, while suppressing others, that people are obviously different and deserve to be treated as such.

And yet, the Coronavirus doesn’t care. The Coronavirus spreads from one person to another no matter if it’s crossing a country border, if it’s a white person or a black person, if it’s a rich person or poor person, if it’s a Muslim or a Jew, or if it’s a Republican, Democrat, Communist, Dictator, or Monarchist. Humans are all equally as susceptible.

To me, this is a striking reminder of just how absurd social constructs are and how we let human-made definitions drive our perceived differences. At the end of the day, a white man in Minneapolis, an Asian woman in North Korea, and a child in Kazakhstan are all equally as susceptible to this virus.

It takes a global pandemic for us to see visibly that we are all, first-and-foremost, human beings. I mean, human beings are 99.9% genetically similar to one another. All the other differences we have created ourselves through social constructs.

A social construct is an idea that has been created and accepted by people in a society. Put more simply, they are things that at some…