We have no right to ask health professionals to become heroes

 

Applause comes and goes. Superman's cloak makes room for aseptic personal protective equipment and Thor's hammer transforms into a stethoscope. Healthcare workers have become the new heroes of our society. For better or for worse. With all the consequences that this entails.

Words shape our world

Words, whether we like it or not, make sense of our world. Words help us build the narrative around which our life and, of course, social life revolves. Words help us build and destroy. They enrich or limit us.

This is why the Thought Police of the dystopian society that George Orwell imagined in his book " 1984 " pursued with particular zeal the words and carefully watched the good use of Newspeak, whose "purpose was to limit the scope of thought and to restrict the range of action of the mind ".

His book, some know well, is far from being a science fiction work. In the former Soviet Union, those who showed particular dedication or productivity in their work were called "heroes of work". Raising those people to the level of heroes was not meant to increase their self-esteem, but to motivate them to work even harder and, at the same time, encourage others to follow their example, because absolute dedication to society was the only thing. important and priority. The maxim was to erase all traces of individuality.

For this reason - and for many others - we must be careful about the words we use. Because "from the bad or inept constitution of words a portentous obstacle of the mind arises", as Francis Bacon said. And so applying the word hero to sanitary ware can become a dangerous sword of Damocles suspended ominously above your head.

Why shouldn't we ask health professionals to be heroes?

In the popular imagination, the archetype of the hero refers to the person who stands out for having performed extraordinary feats that require a lot of courage. The hero not only displays great courage, but often sacrifices himself for others without expecting any reward.

However, in a prepared nation that has its priorities clear and protects its workers, doctors should not be forced to take "heroic" actions. They should not be forced to expose themselves to contagion due to the lack of protective equipment. They shouldn't be forced to work with plastic bags tied to their heads and bodies. They shouldn't be forced to do endless guards in extreme conditions that make them more prone to making mistakes. In short, they shouldn't be forced to take on the role of heroes we have imposed on them. And, of course, they shouldn't die for it.

Calling them heroes, while it may seem like recognition, also has a downside. That word can crush them under its weight. It can lead them to ask too much of themselves, beyond humanly acceptable limits. It causes him stress. And huge frustration when they can't save lives.

Calling them heroes means putting all the responsibility on their shoulders while we expect them to save us. It involves asking them to sacrifice themselves for us. And all of this exacerbates the emotional damage they already suffer from. So deep down, we hurt them by turning them into our heroes.

In fact, most health professionals don't consider themselves heroes. In reverse. And it is not an excess of humility, but of common sense. They just want to do their job professionally, without heroism. And while many welcome applause on balconies, a moment that unites us as a society and encourages us to move forward, most want us to understand that applause is a trap we have fallen into or slipped into more or less. unknowingly.

The trap behind heroism

The applause and all the heroic speech that has been built around it is a trap, the trap of transforming a group that is the victim of enormous injustice into heroes of society. And it's a trick as old as power: to fill our eyes with tears in order to cloud the brain. Applaud with emotion so as not to think about why we have to applaud. And so, as we glorify their work, we condemn them to bear excessive weight.

As the photos of applause fill the covers, we continue to close our eyes to the working and living conditions of many of those health workers who are forced to chain one precarious contract after another, with job instability at their heels. Disposable heroes, who at this moment have already been fired and relegated further and further into the row of social importance, in a society with too short a memory that does not stop long to reflect.

For this reason, more and more health professionals are raising their voices, because they do not consider themselves heroes or martyrs, but victims of a system that puts them in the difficult position to expose their lives to save others. Our doctors are people who have been sent to war without weapons and bare chested. People who admit to having seen “things that have left me shocked, that I don't want to see anymore, imprinted on my retina; I have seen decisions made that should never have been made and for the first time in my career I have come out crying helplessly, ” said a nurse.

People who are having nightmares about what they are going through and who even think about quitting their jobs when it is all over. People who cannot find refuge and protection in their home. That they cannot hug their children when they return home and sometimes even have to endure the attacks and humiliations of those who consider them "plagued" . And these people don't want applause, they just want us to hear them. They want that when we stop cheering, we join together to change a system that has nullified them and turned them into victims.

Although perhaps that is too much to ask. Because we're not heroes either. But together, if we wanted to, we could give them the place they deserve in our society.