Men Without Chests And The Current Crisis

One of the great questions I see scattering The Book of Face as I wander it is "Why?  Why are people suddenly acting liking the end of the world is nigh, hoarding toilet paper and stripping shelves?  Why are people refusing to follow instructions and stay at home and away from others?  Why are people ignoring what seems to be some kind of danger - or over-reacting to it?"

It is a question worth asking - after all, we are (at least in the United States) on the cusp of a possible serious issue and things suddenly seem to be coming unhinged as if we have never had an emergency before.  And, for many of us, it appears we are going to have a fair amount time to ponder such things.

I see three contributing factors:

1)  The Self As Supreme:  For the last 15 or 20 years Western Civilization - or at least larger and larger parts of it - have embraced the concept of The Self.  More importantly, the Liberated Self.  I as myself am right to be whatever I want to be.  My rights matter, others do not.  Everything comes down to the vindication of me and my lifestyle and my rights.  Others do not matter, their opinions are old or antiquated or even just foolish.  This is the 21st Century, after all.

And so, when an emergency strikes, the Self is supreme.  One needs to worry about one's self - after all, that is the most important thing.  In an emergency, even more so.

2)  The Atomization of Society:  Related to one, American Society (at least) has spent the last 30 years breaking itself down into smaller and smaller fragments.  We define ourselves by every characteristic and category we can dream up.  We have created tribes within tribes, lifting some up and glorifying them while ignoring others.  There is no sense of "us", of "Americans".

So it should not be unsurprising that, when some kind of national consensus of action is needed, no-one acts in the best interests of everyone.  We have trained groups to think only of themselves and promote only themselves.  Why would they stop now?

3)  The Propensity to Panic:  If Climate Change has taught us anything, it is that it is perfectly acceptable to panic and over-react, to say and do things and then only later walk the statements back because "it is that important".  So when we actually panic over something, the only surprise is that this is not something that was carefully planned and scripted.

Do I have a solution?  No, of course not.  The damage is done.  It would take a generation, maybe two, to undo the damage that has been done.  I would like to believe that the crisis will promote sound thinking but sadly, I fear it will only promote even more of the three items above, combined with a growing sense that only a "Benevolent" government can solve such things.

C.S. Lewis, in his quote above, noted that we create "men without chests" and then expect things of them they cannot give.  Likewise, we have created (or have watch as it was created) a generation or two of self centered, atomized, panic-driven herds.  The fact that they cannot meaningfully deal with an emergency should in no wise surprise us.