“I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”
Klaatu – From the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
It is been almost a month since I thought to write about the topic the whole World is talking about. I thought to write about what was going on and how it was developing. However I quickly realized this was something different to other recent crisis and I started to see how people, normal people, respond and behave to it. And this catched me.
I consider myself a curious and analytic person. Someone who prefer to listen rather than talk and I was amazed (still I am) about all of this so I was listening, reading, watching what people was saying and how goverments have reacted to control and fight this.
The title of this post is inspired by the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. A sci-fi classic which also happens to be a cult movie and one of the best of its kind (I totally recomend to watch it). The quote is taken from the same film and I believe it sumarizes very well what I saw in the last weeks while SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread thought the whole World becoming a pandemic.
And it is true that fear and panic are the real enemy in crisis like this. They drive people’s decitions to be irrational and people’s acts to be the wrong ones. This is one of the things I am seeing in many people (as individuals) and countries (as comunity).
Individuals
Things look very different when happens far away from our comfort zone. Western countries were almost convince that the epidemic in China would be contained and erradicated there; one more asian epidimic similar to the ones at the begining of this milenia like the first SARS or MERS. But the truth is that it quickly developed to a mass spread; so quickly that we barely realized.
People then get shocked when they feel the danger is knoking the door, their security gets compromised and their leaders don’t do anything to protected them. In this scenario, it is natural to feel fear leading to panic. And panic in a society makes people to be selfish, think on their own safety and survival. In essence, panic leads to the end of society. And we can see this when people start to do panic buying of essentials and food; even though this is irrational (suplies will still going through), people do it believing this is the right and safest thing to do.
Dis-information and fake news dramatically contributed to this scenario. In an era where we are all connected and the information is spreading even faster than a virus, false information can step in and influence people when they are more vulnerable.
Then comes the enforced measures needed to stop a pandemic like this. Those measures goes against the “engine” of a society which is social interaction; social contact, and this is something we are not used to. In some countries where this social isolation is enforced, I saw something similar to the Kübler-Ross stages of grief in people: first days of denial about what really is happening, then resignation and finally acceptance that these measures are key to stop the virus spread.
As today when I am writing this post, looks like most countries are struggling between resignation and acceptance. And seems the worst is yet to come within weeks or few months, so a big uncertenty is uppon us yet are we are still “learning”. But there is something we all need to have it clear: this will end, and sooner if we are smart.
Communities
During the pandemic I have seen different aproaches to tackle and fight the spreading in many countries. Funny enough only one seems to be working (at least up to this moment) but not all the countries seems to follow it. Why is that? Sadly the answer is the usual suspect: politics. In some countries seems that secure a re-election, the need to remain in the power and destroy the opposition come before anything else; even health. I know it is unbeleable (I still don’t believe it while I am writing), but it is true. These governments have reacted in a wrong way even knowing it (!!) and when the things got worst, they had not other choice than change the approach to the only one that is working…
In crisis is when you can see the real face of people and real intentions of leaders and governments. If there is something good from all of this, I believe it is that we have seen the real face of a lot of people, institutions, companies and governments. And when all of this ends (and it will) I hope we will not forget and make whaever is neccesary to change.
An underlying problem is developing along with the pandemic, and it is an accute global recession. To be honest, at the beginning I thought I would see more news talking about economy and more measures would be taken around it. I think we are living in a financial system that is highly unsustainable and in a society totally driven by rotten money, so I though governments would be reacting to economy first. Luckly seems it is not the case (at least one good thing) and health is being considered first as it should be.
Clearly 2020 will be a year to be remembered forever by our generation. Trully the World stays still. This is one crisis that have not been something similar since World War II where we are all being tested; as individuals, as society and as leaders. We are leading to an unprecedented uncertainty not knowing how we will be in just a couple of months. But there is something sure: we will overcome this together and this is the right time to really CHANGE the things that are not working. Be better, smarter, cautious with the environment and restructure the society to prioritize the health sector and science research over others.