This piece makes me think of my own work on veterans, and the current language of "heroes" for essential workers and medical professionals.

A key difference between Mil/LE on the one hand, and medical professionals et al on the other, is the grant of the power of violence. https://twitter.com/PeterLucier/status/1252331543307190275

Veterans and LE fulfill dual roles of being sacrificial lambs, and high priests. Their deaths are salvific, and they are accorded certain statuses. They are granted the power of the state to wield violence, to conduct rituals (flag ceremonies, etc), and are granted higher status

Nurses, doctors, grocery store workers -- their deaths will be seen as sacrificial. They put themselves in harms way. They also are currently granted the otherizing "hero" status, and adoration replaces kinship.

But they are not granted that unique power of violence.

The grant of violence creates an in-culture among the military and law enforcement. Warriors. Sheepdogs. Punishers. Speaking out against the use of violence is effeminate, weak, and will quickly earn you the epitaph of "Oath Breaker"

How will the granting of "hero" status affect the medical community? The essential labor?

With no corresponding tremendous grant of power, and only the "hero" status, will they be long satisfied?

In the starkest terms, what echelon in the pantheon of American heroes are those who don't kill anyone for the state, before dying for the state.