Persuasion

From rising COVID19 cases in construction to a mandatory vaccine requirement, the explosive strike and ensuing riots, it’s all escalated so quickly that it felt out of control. But could it have been prevented? 

Although I am not endorsing the behaviour of a group that lists among its demands that the Australian government widely distribute ivermectin, vitamin C and zinc rather than vaccines, it’s helpful to look at the way the situation escalated, and why. It’s easy to separate ourselves from “them” and enjoy the moral higher ground and moral indignation of being part of the socially accepted, who are willing to comply with stay at home orders and be vaccinated.

First, let’s look at what Premier Andrews demanded after allowing the COVID19 cases to rise in the construction industry for weeks before acting.

“Construction workers state-wide will need to show evidence to their employer that they have had at least a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by 11.59pm on the 23rd of September,” (Victorian Building Authority, Friday, 17 September 2021)

This demand allowed construction workers only one week to get their first dose. Not only does this not allow the vaccine hesitant time to speak to their GP, but it may have even been logistically impossible. Many of us have had to book up to a month in advance to get our first dose, even in the large state-run hubs. 

Apart from the punitive approach chosen by the Victorian State Government and later during the protests, the Victoria Police force, there are also issues of segregation in mandating vaccines in such a public, sudden fashion. Whatever your opinion on mandatory vaccines, it must be understood that when we target a specific group of people in society, we make them “other”. Garfinkel’s essay “Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies” explores how people are socially shamed by the wider social system and the effect that this has on an individual’s behaviour. One of society’s most powerful tools is moral indignation:

Moral Indignation

The paradigm of moral indignation is public denunciation. We publicly deliver the curse: “I call upon all men to bear witness that he is not as he appears but is otherwise and in essence’ of a lower species.” (Garfinkel, 1956).

As a society, we should denounce acts of violence, and our politicians and many other public figures have denounced the acts of the protestors. However, the protests occurred after an effective social shaming and degradation of the character of a group of people formerly accepted by society. Public shaming has a powerful impact on a person’s psyche and can have disruptive social consequences, as we have witnessed this week.

The Degradation Ceremony

To Garfinkel, a successful degradation ceremony must have a number of components:

1. A perpetrator ( in this case, the construction industry)
2. An event to blame the perpetrator for ( higher cases of COVID19 and alleged lower vaccination)
3. Witnesses ( that’s us)
4. A denouncer who identifies as a public person ( Premier Andrews and the State Government)
5. A moral standard to which the denouncer appeals, which is considered common to all witnesses ( Public health regulations and the Victorian Roadmap)
6. The denouncer must be considered as an embodiment of these morals (Our Premier and his government)
7. The denouncer must distance himself from the perpetrator by defining the person or group as an embodiment of immorality (No jab no job)
8. Finally, the perpetrator must be ritually separated from the witnesses themselves ( shutting down construction for non-compliance)

So over the course of a few weeks, the construction industry was publicly shamed and moral indignation from society has become a moral virtue.

So ultimately, this public, televised demand was an act of public exposure for a group of people. In essence, they were expected to carry the responsibility for the entire situation. The demand that the targeted perpetrators had one week to get their first dose of a vaccine was the first condition of a degradation ceremony. The ceremony escalated as the week went on and Andrew’s response to non-compliance grew more aggressive, culminating in police firing rubber bullets and tear gas in hopes of dispersing the groups.

That escalated quickly

However, by now, the degraded group had formed their own moral indignation and were merely fortified by their opposition. Once their identity had been publicly degraded, they no longer desired to be accepted by current society, and preferred a group where they were accepted. Therefore police presence encouraged social cohesion, as there was no other option available for the degraded. 

The alternative

So how could this outcome have been avoided? Rather than escalating straight to “no jab no job”,  persuasive incentives that respect the agency and humanity of the individuals in the construction industry could have put oil on troubled waters. An apology from our Premier for escalating the situation and recognizing that some of the responsibility for this moral panic rests on him through his use of words and policy could also have helped. Overall a punitive style of leadership shouldn’t expect compliance, but a conciliatory stance could have allowed the groups to “save face” and comply with orders without degradation. 

References:

Garfinkel, H. (1956). Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies. The American Journal of Sociology, 61(1), 420.

Victorian Building Authority, 17th August 2021. “Important COVID-19 update: Mandatory vaccination for construction workers”. <https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/news/news/2021/important-covid-19-update-mandatory-vaccination-for-construction-workers&gt;

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