Sometimes I walk through Grand Central as just about the only person without a mask. Everybody else is dutifully masked up. Surprisingly, nobody has ever confronted me, probably because I'm 6'3" and well over 200 pounds. Except one time, a mentally disturbed homeless person shouted at me to "mask up" even though that bum did not have a mask on himself!
I get away without a mask in most areas of NYC but riding the commuter trains is an Orwellian experience with the loudspeaker loudly proclaiming "Everybody must have a mask covering mouth and nose" about every five minutes. People that used to talk to each other now stare straight ahead or bury themselves in their media devices, like mindless robots, just like George Orwell pictured it would be like.
The mask has become Orwell’s predicted “ boot on a human face”