by Giles on Wed Jun 24, 2020 12:43 am
Regarding 'stupidity'...
I think that overall we need to look a little deeper in terms of behavior and psychology. Everyone is affected, unsettled, compromised and frightened by the coronavirus to some extent. Rich, reasonably well-off or poor; young, old; more left or right leaning in political terms, etc. And above all unsettled, because this virus pandemic is not only threatening in itself, it also continues to present important uncertainties and unknowns alongside the things that now have been reasonably established. And of course the nature of this virus in particular is that often you can’t see if people are infected – and infectious – or not. Not even infected people themselves can sometimes know or even suspect this. And yet they can then still infect others who may become seriously ill or even die. And the whole thing is basically “nature” acting on us: natural mutation enabling a (for us) new virus to make the jump from animal to human. On one level as “random” as an earthquake, or a volcano, or even a huge storm (leaving out climate change for a moment). And that’s an incredibly unsettling situation for all of us. Suddenly we are all very small and weak and helpless again in the face of the natural world, the big big universe. Plus we have the other emotional, economic and financial suffering being caused by measures and/or the disease itself. Plus there were already many other unsettling factors in our world, even before the pandemic.
So: it’s not surprising that a significant number of people, when faced by all this frightening uncertainty, instinctively want to believe that the overall situation is not complex or uncertain or ‘random’ after all. In a way, this can console people, because it restores a sense of certainty, or orientation. Among the simplest approaches are options such as: the virus isn’t really dangerous. Period. Or: the virus doesn’t exist at all, it’s a hoax. Period. Or: it’s not naturally occurring, it has been engineered to do this and has now been released on purpose, or maybe by accident. Period. (This brings strong emotional simplification of the problem, because NOW THERE IS SOMEONE SPECIFIC WE CAN BLAME, AT WHOM WE CAN DIRECT OUR FEAR AND ANGER!). Plus milder variations on these themes, some of which are certainly possible if not however likely or at all proven: it’s a natural virus but the outbreak has been caused by an accidental release from a lab (so there’s still someone specific we can blame).
Hence such ‘explanations’ can be attractive, either in themselves – they can be directly accessed on the Internet – or by way of some politicians, even leaders in office, who more or less espouse these viewpoints. Or at least hint at them. It’s a form of consolation, of restored certainty and thus of perceived ‘security’.
So in times of fear and uncertainty, emotional needs can sometimes take precedence over logical thinking and reasoning, even among many people who are not ‘stupid’. The alternative explanation, the alternative facts, may be ‘stupid’ - meaning they fall apart if subjected to logical scrutiny - but the people who subscribe to them are not necessarily that. It’s one human response to the overall situation.
Do not make the mistake of giving up the near in order to seek the far.
