Why The #BeKind Hashtag Isn't Enough When It Comes To Covid-19
Once, when I was about seven years old, I repeated the word ‘bottle’ to myself so many times that it began to sound like a nonsense word. It was an important moment for me because it made me realise (although I was too young to really take this on board at the time) that words are just sounds, communicative tools that we employe to convey all our ideas and thoughts, large and small. They’re not actual ideas themselves, just auditory colours we use to paint pictures.
So, when #BeKind started trending it became my new ‘bottle’ - it lost all meaning, it became nonsense. I just kept seeing the words over and over and over again and eventually, they just stopped meaning anything. I get the sentiment and I don’t disagree but unless we are actually willing to be kind then it’s just an overused hashtag with about as much substance as Boris Johnson’s fringe.
And that was kind of ok. Before Covid-19. It was ok that some people bashed out the #BeKind hashtag twenty times a day, but still didn’t stand up to give a pregnant lady a seat on the tube, or didn’t let people out at a junction, or didn’t check on their elderly neighbour. It was ok that people would respond with a passive aggressive #BeKind to those disagreeing with others on social media, but then agressively-aggressively slagged off their mates behind their back on the phone, because that was life. No one is perfect, everyone’s a bit hypocritical and we all have our flaws.
Now though, for the time being, life’s changed. I’m not being dramatic. I don’t think Covid-19 is the end of the world, but it is actually going to be the end of the world for some people whom, without the existence of this bug, would have lived a good deal longer. Whatever happens after this first outbreak, we are all in agreement that the initial spread of Covid-19 is going to result in a significant amount of deaths that otherwise would not have occurred. It’s going to result in a significant amount of loss for people, a significant amount of severe disruption, a significant amount of financial devastation, a significant amount of emotional hardship and pain.
You may be one of the lucky ones that doesn’t catch it, that doesn’t lose anyone from it, that doesn’t lose any work or money but there won’t be many of those people so it’s time for us to move beyond the pithy #BeKind hashtag. It’s time for us to really remember what those words mean offline and in the real world.
It’s not about politics, or political allegiances, it’s not about petty squabbles or jealousy or insecurity. It’s about checking in on your elderly neighbours, offering to do shopping for them or for anyone else that might need it. It’s about potentially collaborating with your friends to cover childcare if that becomes necessary. It’s about not stockpiling and not thinking unilaterally just about yourself. It’s about accepting the disruption and inconvenience and self-isolating right now if you have any symptoms, no matter how mild. It’s about bridging gaps and differences and it’s about removing the hashtag from #BeKind and hearing those two words for what they really are and really mean.
To be kind requires sacrifice and selfless acts - it’s not easy and it take a conscious effort to remember to not do the instinctive thing and revert to our animalistic nature of looking after ourself. We’ve evolved beyond that and it’s easy to be kind when times are good. But for now, while we get through what is the biggest health crisis for a generation, we need to dig deep to fight those selfish instincts. Let’s put down the phone and stop typing #BeKind and look up and see if we can’t actually, be kind.
Don’t tell me, show me.