DRMacIver's Notebook: Everybody is looking for permission
A lens I started looking at the social world through a while back is permission. Specifically, that everybody is looking for it, and that many situations, relationships, and activities can be thought of in terms of what permission they give you. A common, practical, example of this is asking stupid questions in meetings: Often everybody is confused, but nobody feels they have permission to ask, so once somebody is prepared to break the silence everyone is more able to (although a friend has expressed concern that asking stupid questions has instead become high status as people have learned this). Another example that has been very relevant recently is giving people permission to freak out about COVID-19. I think at this point everyone has officially been given that permission, so it's no longer quite so useful (that may be more local / political. Certainly some people aren't freaking out about it, and I suspect some of their friends still need permission), but there was a period of a f
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