Socius and Neighbor
Keeping the balance between safety and economics has been very challenging for the country and its people. The government and the people have been getting extremely exhausted facing all the consequences that the virus, COVID-19, comes with. Consequences such as having to close down schools and spend an entire school year online, canceling debuts and celebrating on a zoom call instead, etc. The virus has indeed allowed us to indulge in new experiences, some of which are activities and routines we do not wish to return to once the pandemic is over if it does end. In the past year, the government has been implementing different levels of community quarantine in their attempt to contain the virus from affecting everyone. Each type of community quarantine comes with a different set of restrictions that determines who can and not leave their houses, which establishments are allowed to operate, from, and up until what time is the curfew, etc. Although these community quarantine variations remain to be confusing, it is no doubt that each has its own benefits and consequences.
The first-ever lockdown the country was put in was in March 2020, this lockdown celebrated its first year anniversary this month, March 2021. Since then, nothing has been the same, community quarantine was never lifted entirely, only several amendments have been made such as but not limited to; ECQ, MECQ, GCQ, Bubble GCC, etc.
Paul Ricoeur, a distinguished 20th-century French philosopher, has redefined socius and neighbor — socius being a less intimate relationship set by “…structures, institutions, and social functions…” while neighbor is a more intimate relationship (Pasco, R. 2014). An example of socius would be relationships at workspaces where there are fewer interactions between people such as factories. Wherein neighbor are relationships built through successful transactions, such as those interactions that are initiated despite two individuals having two entirely different social functions. Example is when an employee gives water to a colleague because he/she seems dehydrated, therefore the employee who gave water is a neighbor.
In today, limited physical interactions have not prevented the foundation of neighbor or socius relationships. In fact, various ways to build such has been developed and adapted to the digital age to ensure that necessary operations are not completely interrupted due to the pandemic. From physical meetings in the office where you can simply call in the people involved to come to the meeting room to zoom calls that are scheduled at least a day before to ensure that the meeting day and time are best fit to the availability of everyone. From going to the grocery to buy missing ingredients for the dinner’s recipe to preparing an entire list of at least 2 weeks worth of needed items from the supermarket. The pandemic has not limited socius and neighbor relationships, it has actually promoted it rather than prevent it. Watch Party, a platform for interactive movie dates with friends has been innovated. Grabfood, Grabmart, Food Panda, and several other platforms for online food delivery and grocery shopping are widely available. Even deliveries are completed in less than an hour compared to before where deliveries are completed in at least a week as it goes through a tedious process from dropping off the delivery at the carrier, to packaging, etc. wherein now all it takes is booking a delivery, wait for the delivery person to arrive, and in less than 1 hour the recipient already has his/her expected parcel.
However, despite the fact that many have successfully adjusted to the changes brought about by the pandemic, lest we forget the existence of challenges we continue to face daily, one of which is identifying how to make a neighbor given the current set-up, or simply: How can people build an intimate relationship, act beyond their set social functions, and become a stranger’s neighbor in a COVID-19 pandemic? There are many ways to do so.
Simply going out of the way to lend a helping hand to someone we are not obliged to help makes a neighbor out of us, helping a classmate that we have never met in real life makes us a neighbor, and in my own recent experience as well I have transactions when certain people have become a neighbor for me. I had an online meeting once, and for some reason when it ended, three org-mates of mine stayed and suddenly started throwing me questions such as: Martin, what’s up? Yo, what’s wrong? Martin, tell us what’s going on. I was genuinely confused so I responded with a “what?”. They said they noticed that during the duration of the meeting I seemed exhausted, which was in fact true. These three people weren’t complete strangers, but I’ve only met one of them in real life. In fact, my relationship with them is socius and our interactions are mostly work-related. But that very moment when they checked up on me when they did not have to, lightened me up. Knowing that despite all the heavy circumstances I was going through that time, there were people I could reach out to for some company, and that moment I realized they are my neighbors.
It is undeniable that the government has been doing its very best for the people. The Philippines along with the whole world has been in year-long combat against a virus. Everyone is exhausted and has been in survival mode. As an individual who has experienced firsthand the effects of the various community quarantines and restrictions, I believe that there is no concrete solution that will effectively provide a solution to the virus and all the other issues it comes along with. There is only a way to contain it, and a way to temporarily allow everyone to survive which takes discipline amongst every Filipino citizen. Even the President is not able to come up with a solution to the ongoing problem. What I could come up with are ideas that they have probably already considered but junked anyway due to the probably heavier consequences it comes with. The ECQ may have worked to contain the virus and prevent further infections but it has caused businesses to close down, people to lose jobs, Filipinos to starve. While on the other hand, a less strict community quarantine that has allowed operations to go back to almost 100% has caused cases to leap.
The government can only do so much. They can keep mandating new rules and restrictions but its effectiveness relies on the disciple of the people. As students and adults, we have a lot to contribute for the benefit of the whole country — focus on our education, build closer relationships with our family and friends, be involved in social issues, avoid leaving the house for unnecessary reasons, because these smaller achievements can help attain the bigger goal, that is, defeating the virus. Simple actions of one person can cause a butterfly effect. From doing it on your own, you can invite your family to do it, until your friends do it too. The only way to survive is together.
One important realization is that socius and neighbor are two notions that are beautiful on their own, socius is not better than neighbor nor is neighbor better than socius. Both have their own beauty. Neighbor can turn a complete stranger into someone who we can not live without. In fact, this is how we build our networks, we are able to connect with people who we have zero association with. Our friends were strangers before they became people we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Similarly, socius is as beautiful because it has the power to associate us with strangers as well. Through the power of socius, our online college experience is made more bearable because we are given blockmates that we can study and spend semesters with. Socius relationships can be turned into neighbor because our colleagues’ social function is to only study, but they go out of their way to help us survive school so that makes them our neighbor.
The pandemic has absolutely made an impact on my life. Then, I used to envision myself as someone just finishing school, applying for work after college, and now I realized that I do not aspire to live a mediocre life. I want to spend my lifetime enjoying life, learning, and leaving an impact on others. The pandemic is not an entirely beautiful journey but I’m glad that I was able to turn it into a fruitful experience. Although I do not wish for the upcoming generations to experience something like a pandemic in their lifetime, I do believe that there are unique lessons and experiences that pandemics give, and therefore it is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Whether or not my vision of the future has changed, one thing for sure is that I now know how beautiful change and unpredictability could be.
