All over the world people have made it to their balconies or doorsteps to overcome the restrictions of their new-found quarantine. What started in Italy first with spontaneous singing, has now found its dominant expression as formalized applause for health care personnel in many countries. This has been hailed as a ̈beautiful gesture ̈ to pay tribute to their efforts on the ground. Despite the welcome, I will argue that the emergence of this regular exercise is best understood as a form of social distancing.
Seeing pictures of people clapping their hands from their balconies evokes images of theatre audiences approving of the actors ́ performances from their loges. Indeed, the applause has its home in theatre going back to antiquity and has been highly standardized in the European classical period to most commonly mark the end of a performance. We see similar applause to honour achievements in the world of sports. Here we already have a key: applause is rooted in the extraordinary, in fiction, the performed, the world of play. Just as we applaud our actors, sports stars, speakers and performing artists, we honour our health workers – with a significant difference, however.
In his seminal Homo ludens, examining the nature of playing and games, Johan Huizinga points out, that “first and foremost ... all play is a voluntary activity.” While there are some volunteers in the health system, these are in a minority and overall it would be difficult to argue that health workers are voluntarily doing their job in a dangerous environment. Quite the opposite has been unfolding. In numerous countries, health workers were the first to be banned from international travel. As essential workers they have had to postpone holidays, work extra-hours and have even been pressured to work when sick or be afraid of not getting sick leaves. Rather then, are we applauding the gladiator entering the arena to fight the lion?
