If you are falsely positive

Yesterday, a Shanghai couple was knocked on the door and told that according to the instructions of the district CDC, they were judged to be positive, and they had to clean up and immediately transfer to the Fangcang shelter hospital.

The problem is that the nucleic acid test results they have on hand are all negative, so which one should prevail? They asked to see the report, and they asked for a review, all of which were denied because the executive just took people away. They broke down several times, "We are all negative, how can I go with you? You are trying to force me to be positive!"

After the 20-minute recording came out, it instantly resonated with countless people. Because everyone knows that the same situation may happen to them at any time.

A friend was especially shocked: "My God, this is in Shanghai!" She is not from Shanghai and has no house in Shanghai, but she had half-jokingly said before that the reason why she was still "relying on" was because of the epidemic It was discovered that big cities have a somewhat scarce sense of security. "Magic operations in third- and fourth-tier cities like my hometown will not happen in Shanghai" - now, even this has been shattered.

Because of this, some people joked that it seems that after the closure of the city, Shanghai housing prices will fall. Some friends said that Shanghai is still better. If you change it to another place, you will be beeping for 20 minutes and won't do it? - Of course, there is no essential difference.

In the storms of this era, no one is immune to such a speck of ashes falling on their heads, because whether you are infected with the new crown is completely random - everyone is equal in front of the virus, if there is any difference in the situation, then You need to work hard for it.

Is it possible that the couple was positive? According to them, they communicated with the CDC before and learned that the hospital below reported it, and the hospital gave it negative. They and other positives thickened up.

In any case, one of the two reports is always wrong. If you are wrongly judged, who will be held responsible? Why can citizens be taken away at will without showing any paperwork? Even, how can you believe the real identity of the person knocking on the door? Do you have to suffer for nothing just by a word from a stranger?

I know that some people will say: "Then you have brought the materials to prove it, what else do you have to say? The results are not the same?" - This is different. If you allow yourself to be taken away at will, it means that whatever the result will be, You are automatically giving up your rights.

I also saw some people scoffing: "Shanghai is full of mischievous people, so the CDC can still wrong you? What's so hypocritical, isn't it that you live in a cabin for a few days, and you won't die."

This kind of argument is very common in China, but it is blunt to say that the more such a person is, the more numb he is to the suffering of others, and even if he finds out later that he has made a mistake, he will only lightly say "the starting point is good". , let you be wronged, but don't take it to heart. If you are still unrelenting, there are hats like "small belly chicken intestines" waiting for you.

No matter how trivial it is in the eyes of others, it is not trivial in the eyes of the individual. When you are in such a situation, the only thing that can save you from being arbitrarily treated can only rely on true procedural justice.

In the recording, the couple also stated more than once that they did not cooperate with the epidemic prevention, but insisted that they should follow the procedures: first review and prove that their family was indeed positive, and then issue written materials. This may seem like a sleight of hand, but as the jurist Richard Posner once said: "Detailed legalism is the umbrella of the untouchables."

If not, what else?

Writer Liuliu once sang praises after Wuhan was locked down, saying, "You are in China and you won the lottery!" However, now that her own mother is trapped in Shanghai, she also told her mother the truth: "For your whole life, you have won the lottery!" , there is no such thing as free choice.”

It should be said that this may be a more typical Chinese choice: believe in authority and accept fate. Although it seemed "voluntary", as Liuliu herself admitted, it was actually out of desperation-because she couldn't see any other options, she could only convince herself that it was the best to accept her fate.

In our tradition, often associated with this attitude of resignation, there is also a customary practice, that is, "moving with emotion". In fact, Liuliu did the same, but she did it to her mother and friends on social media, and took a fateful attitude towards authority.

This kind of "moving with emotion" is more often through "complaining" to ask for "the muzzle of the gun to be raised an inch". Although it is thousands of years apart, the scene in Du Fu's famous "Officers in the Stone Trench", "Why is the official screaming, why is the woman crying", seems vaguely similar to the present. However, as we can see in this poem, no matter how the old woman complained about her family's hardships, it seems that she moved the poet and us readers. The yamen, whether moved or not, eventually took her away.

Today, it’s getting harder and harder for this approach to work—because it requires not only empathy, but more importantly, the executors have a certain amount of flexibility.

A few years ago, when I went to Japan for the first time, I spent a whole day in Sapporo, calculated the time, and rushed to the Sapporo City Museum at the end of Odori Park at dusk. As soon as he stepped in in a hurry, he was stopped by the old gatekeeper. I was wondering, I checked it myself, there is no need for tickets here, and the time is supposed to close in 1 hour, why not let me in? After asking a few questions, he sighed and waved me in.

At that time, I was in a hurry to visit in the only time I had left. When I came out, I settled down at the door and thought about it, and suddenly I understood what was going on: I had been traveling for a few days, but I forgot that today was Monday, which was originally a closed day. . That's why he wanted to stop me, but he must have listened to my stammering Japanese, thinking that it's not easy for me as a "foreigner" to come here, and I didn't need to explain nonsense, so I let it go.

This is a small matter, but it has refreshed my understanding of Sapporo and even Japan. Thinking about it, he is willing to be convenient to people, and he has to have flexible permissions. Otherwise, if tourists are allowed to visit on closed days, they will be punished as illegal. I believe it is very difficult for him to show such kindness. This is by no means denying his kindness. After all, he has authority, but he still refuses to be convenient to others, or even use power to seek rent. We have also seen a lot.

In the reality of the domestic society, it is often either you are useless to speak out (because power itself hinders empathy), or the other party has no authority at all - of course, this is very subtle, and there are many people who believe, "There is actually a way. , but you didn't find the right person."

The more grass-roots executors are, the less flexible this kind of flexibility will be. Sometimes even if you complain to him, he will complain to you in turn, saying that he is also under orders, and I hope you will "understand and cooperate" and support his work. This is where the grievance strategy is paradoxical: it can be used by one party to fight for rights, and sometimes it can even be used by the other to squeeze rights and enforce them.

Last year, during the epidemic prevention and control in Harbin, there was also a video leaked. The police came to put a seal on the door. The host was very irritable, but the hostess was patient, and repeatedly explained that it was not uncooperative, but there was really no rice at home. Don't just stick the seal, but also help solve the difficulties in life. However, he broke his mouth and touched countless netizens, but he didn't seem to have touched the police - he said that his job was just to stick seals.

Like this recording in Shanghai, the details of this incident in Harbin were different, but the executors also had no room for accommodation (of course they didn’t do anything), and the hostess mainly came forward, but the eldest sister in Harbin was more “moving”. With love,” while the Shanghai woman insisted on procedures.

Before we know it, we have fallen into the situation in Kafka's novels: facing a huge machine like a tiny individual, we can neither circumvent it nor reason with it, but we may be crushed by it at any time. It's an absurd situation that's both disturbing and terrifying, and if you don't want to accept your fate and can no longer expect to be "feeling" about it, then you'd better be prepared with a strong nerve to the end .

To paraphrase the old saying, behind is home, and we cannot take a step back.