Oscar Wilde once said, “Give the man a mask and he will tell you the truth.” 

At the doorway of a famed Colorado hardware store, I stood behind a couple underneath multiple signs saying, “Mask Required.” However, they hemmed and hawed. They even argued for their rights to not wear one. The patient greeter implored them to wear a face covering to protect everyone else, including her.

What is it about people not wearing masks indoors? They ignore science, endanger others, in the name of some personal freedom? 

I worked with John Naisbitt, author of the bestselling book, “Megatrends.” He foretold of the dangerous rise of tribalism – individuals looking out for the best interests of themselves and their tribe, at the expense of the common good. Bottom line: They sell out society for a false individual liberty. 

Katie Cruz is the manager of Las Vegas’s Atomic Bar, which has the oldest liquor license in town. She recently told The New York Times that “She has been trampled and bruised by ‘really mean’ people who refuse to wear masks.”

Anti-masking, is in itself, an act of dangerous anti-patriotism. Subversion of the American Ideal, E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one.

Today’s anti-maskers aren’t practicing freedom; they’re delaying our liberation from this terrible disease. If they simply followed protocol, then the economy could reopen and even thrive. Anti-maskers destroy the very economic system they purport to love and protect. 

We can paraphrase Wilde today: Give the man a mask and he will tell you the truth – about himself. ??

Matthew L. Moseley

Principal, the Moseley Group, Inc.

Boulder

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