When Michael Jackson famously started wearing face masks, many took it as evidence that the great man had succumbed to the windmills of his mind. Yet three decades later it seems that in this respect, along with his other immense talents, he was a man ahead of his time. Just like ‘Thriller’ and just like the ‘Moonwalk’ – masks have become a societal norm.

Jackson was a man plagued by fear and doubt, ostensibly abused throughout his childhood yet worshipped like a God by his admirers to the point where he dislocated from virtually all normal social interaction. In many ways, it seems he was a forerunner of our own collective experiences as humans mask up around the planet seeking safety and dislocation from their social environment.

Can we then use that as a metaphor or even an explanation for societal behaviour in our Covid-Haunted world? Are the psychological consequences even more contagious than the virus itself? And is the new global ‘safetyism’ explained as a maladaptive response by a species displaced and distressed by a loss of its natural habitat? Are we all suffering the Michael Jackson effect?

As I write this I am on a bullet-train (Shinkansen) to Hiroshima – a planetary shrine to the capacity for man to inflict terror upon his own species. In so many ways, travelling through Japan has been a revelation for the ways humans have adapted in the face of Covid-fear.

Japan exists on a major fault line, plagued by hurricanes and earthquakes throughout its history. Lucky charms are ubiquitous throughout the marketplaces whilst Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines co-exist in every neighbourhood to instil a collective calm. Most Japanese worship both religions – when seeking an abundance of safety one cannot be too careful! Prayers are offered at the shrines to afford good luck, whilst protection is sought at the temples. Vermilion is the colour of protection, yet even the purifying waters of the temples and shrines are off limits because of the risk from Covid infection.

It’s little surprise therefore that in our Covid-Haunted world the charms and trinkets of modernity are embraced with the distinctive passion of a race fully acquainted with natural disaster. So it was when one of my travelling companions took ill during his trip with a chest infection he was directed on the phone by a local doctor to attend the hospital. The first hospital we visited was in fact closed, being a Sunday, but another was close by. The Japanese are amongst the most courteous people in the world and I cannot fault the care and concern that was demonstrated. But for a nation regulated by strict rules and tradition, it’s no surprise that above that natural care, compassion, and respect, the Covid scriptures from the priests of the new religion must be ceremoniously observed at all times.

No longer the kimono, the new dress code in these Health Temples consists of a visor, mask, and plastic gown. They possess little elegance and it’s a national tragedy that Japan should forsake the old for the new, but it seems this new deity demands a different deference. The medical appliance company Omron has its headquarters in Kyoto, so naturally my travelling companion was afforded the best monitoring equipment available on the planet. Fortunately or otherwise, the machine provided my friend with some kind of ‘pass’, which according to doctrine means no clinical examination was to be conducted, no auscultation of the chest, no physical contact of any kind, all actions once considered to be the bedrock of good clinical practice.

Instead, according to the new Covid code in Japan, he was discharged with some decongestant tablets and should my friend not recover within three days then he was to return to the hospital for a chest x-ray. Such a management plan suggested by a medical student would conventionally have probably attracted a fail, but in such extreme times, extreme measures are justified.

In Japan, the smile has been replaced by the mask, talking is all but forbidden in public transport areas and Covid directive signs co-exist alongside Shinto and Buddhist instruction.

Thankfully Australian Public Health exists in a more secular world, but Japan is nonetheless an instructive warning as to what can happen when fear trumps science.

Like Michael Jackson, Japan is ahead of its time and my visit has served as a salutary reminder of how in times of pressure, slavish devotion without critical thinking inevitably leads to increasing levels of fear, as sure as day follows night. As I arrive now at Hiroshima train station I am reminded of Roosevelt’s great words spoken in the depths of his despair, ‘there is nothing to fear but fear itself’.