#BTSpeakingOut – Vaxxers and anti-vaxxers rights

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Dick Stoute

Vaxxers claim their right to life and anti-vaxxers claim their right to choose. Both are willing to fight to defend their rights.  It often happens that scared people feel the need to fight and use rights to help them win. Claiming a right creates a beach-head, something they can defend while opponents are forced to attack.

Those who feel strongly against abortion create a foetus’ “right to life”. The immediate opposing move is to create the mother’s “right to choose” and the fight is on. Neither side can win, as each beach-head is impregnable; secure in its creator’s mental space where no opponent can enter.

Each battle is independent. Those who argue for a foetus’ right to life can, in the same breath, argue for their own right to choose not to be vaccinated. Opponents can also be inconsistent and argue for a mother’s right to choose and their own right to life when it comes to vaccines.  Rights are all driven by emotion and it is good that we are beginning to realise how emotional we are. Understanding how emotions shape our thoughts could be the great beneficial take away from this pandemic.

All of us are easily threatened, and when this happens our brain triggers our biological FFF (fight, flight, freeze) response (some add another F). Interestingly, none of the righters/fighters seem to realise this.

They get so intent on fighting that they don’t pay attention to their own emotions. The fight is fun for a while; our brain supports it with excitement, energy and a difficult to resist urge to destroy. When these emotions are flowing other options don’t get a look in.   

When emotions cool, the righters can stand down and let others work out solutions. Instead of fighting about rights, we ask, “what is best for our community”?  Righters have drawn our attention to the issues and can feel successful while cooler heads create solutions that are sensitive to the righters’ emotions, even as they deal with the underlying problem.

Start the cooling down process with a few deep breaths, it is amazing how calming that can be, and then see what creative solutions you come up with.