When it comes to explaining
our reactions to usual situations, let alone unprecedentedly extreme crisis
ones, there are many factors that came into play: personality, education,
cognitive distortions, anxiety levels, financial income, physical and mental
illness, cultural norms and much, much more. But the natural diversity of our
behaviors, which otherwise would not cry out so loud, becomes particularly
evident in the narrow labyrinth we have to take to get out of a
crises.
Personality wise my guess is
that introverts were these who really celebrated the CORONA
stay-home-in-isolation time. When they first heard about it they couldn’t
believe the good news. A long time without the hectic and annoying disruptions
of social interferences was always their dream. So they went to the
supermarket, bought themselves a bottle of champagne and went home with no
hesitation. With an unimaginable pleasure shut the door behind them and enjoyed
the splendor of their solitude in their brand new home-office. However, for the
Italian and Spanish stay-in-the-plaza-all-day-long temperament, who can’t even
conceive having less than 78 different social interactions per day, the CORONA
isolation was the bleakest nightmare. They stayed home only when they had both
legs broken and immobilized, but their inability to move was 126% compensated
by having all their friends and acquaintances over for coffee, branch, lunch,
dinner and a late movie. They simply can’t be contained by the prison of their
apartment for more than 4.5 hours at a time without going crazy, and smashing
all the crystal, and lament to everyone how incredibly unfair this restriction
is. They simply don’t care about any CORONA threat; they have to get out
meeting their friends, walking the dog and enjoying the weekend barbecue!
At the other extreme we have
the overanxious group, those who – even before CORONA - met agoraphobia in a
public place, or used to check all possible sources of health information, or
exhausted impressive amounts of hand cream to compensate for their frequent
hand washing. Their outward behavior tends to be quite compliant when it comes
to health policies, as they do not expose themselves out of inattention and
never forget to implement even the least important of health rules. But such
“perfect behaviors” are certainly fueled by their heavy anxiety drinking.
Members of this group are not having just a coffee-cup of anxiety every
morning; they are getting into their system 6 mugs full of strongly made
anxiety drink every day, plus a rich model of worry cream decorations on the
top of each mug (no exceptions!). Therefore these guys, while a piece of cake
for authorities to manage, oftentimes need the special attention of
mental-health professionals and have a terrific potential to stimulate their
creativity in order to reduce their anxiety overdosing and bulimic worry cream
intake.
Another group that waved at
us hoping to get some attention, if not the valueless coins we generally forget
about, consists of those who barely make it for the day, the poor, the
unemployed, the no money to buy the next bread type. We got a glimpse of the
struggles endured by such Parasite by spying upon their world through
the lens of Bong Joon-ho, the well-known Korean film maker. They would get out
to perfect a lousy deal even in times of war, when real bombs would fall like
heavy rain drops over the city. CORONA is no more threatening than the constant
fears they forcefully befriended, and such a draconic tolerance left them
vulnerable on many fronts. And all countries host their homeless bands on the
last rung of their economic ladder. If you’d care just for a moment to see life
from their perspectives, you’d get how absurd it sounds in their ears our stay
home insistence.
But economic motives can
highlight not only the behaviors of individuals, but also of whole regions and
countries. In Europe at least, Greece thought herself lucky to have surpass its
economic crises. And many of Aristotle’s descendants turned to sound business
and were enthusiastic about their profit when CORONA signed up for a long
tourist stay in Crete and Corfu and for a short visit to the Athens
Archeological Museum. In this context, do you think that the Greek
dump-the-economy-to-save-lives regulations were as easily released as the
German ones? I bet they weren’t!
Sometimes difficult economic
situations mingle with cultural norms and personality to form quite an
explosive cocktail. Brazilian favelas and Romanian Gypsy communities are just
two of the many examples where the utopia of social distancing and personal
hygiene hit a peak. In these communities staying home in isolation is the most
absurd of the absurd absurdities our society ever conceived. Beyond the
precarious soap habits, their degree of social interconnectedness is so
ingrained in their culture that CORONA couldn’t be happier. They have
always seen kids running around eager to intimately know all the corners of all
the houses of the entire neighborhood. And teenagers, adults and older people
always mingled together in a no-personal-space manner animated by sharing the
latest news, by hoping for a good business or a free meal. Such a tenacious
community culture is the only life they know and want to know until their last
day. What could ever convince them to just stay home?
Since we have reached this
point, I’d like to take a moment for a bird-eye view reflection. In real life
personality meets anxiety, and physical health, and mental health, and economy,
and culture and another myriad of factors forming sometimes bizarre
interconnections. I took the chance to highlight them one by one because I
didn’t want to spoil your pleasure of saying “Right, I know someone like this!”
But the complicated reality is that all such factors intermingle in a
convoluted Chinese noodle soup style across our planet. Now let us go back to
last examples we might have otherwise missed.
When it comes to the
stay-in-isolation-for-a-long-time challenge, certain people had a long and
harsh practice, tougher than the toughest SWAT practice. At least two limited
mobility groups already graduated from this difficult master level class, although
they were animated by totally, and I mean TOTALLY different motivations. I
know, you probably don’t see very often in the same class physically impaired
and convicted law-breaker students, but those were the two groups I was talking
about. For them the CORONA stay home regulation is not news and didn’t change a
bit their routine. They know how hard one has to study for graduation and are
not surprised by the toll that has to be paid. I can just imagine the
undetained satisfaction which lighted the face of a physically impaired girl in
Argentina when she realized that now the whole world does not have to use “just
empathy” to get how difficult it is to
stay-home-all-day-for-two-months-in-a-row. And probably a similar comfort
visited some law-breakers [1] who at lunch time started
to exchange jokes like: “What’s the difference between being in and out of
jail? None!
Anyhow, by far the funniest
groups of all are the skeptics and minimizers, those who – despite the huge
media coverage and the WHO roars about the imminent dangers – nonchalantly
declare that they “don’t believe in this CORONA virus” or they cite Shakespeare
and his “Much Ado about Nothing” play. And almost immediately through a comment
about how unnecessary panicky the world is, or fake news or the hidden economic
and political motivations they suspect lay behind all these schemes. For them
seeing is believing, and since they were neither personally introduced to the
CORONA nor haven’t seen her crown in a public place, continue to stay in the
nonbeliever group. How could people be so crazy or naïve to believe that
something invisible could actually be dangerous – they wonder out loud. Didn’t
the common flue claim lives in the past and we all minded our business?
But finally we have render
Caesar’s his belongings, and acknowledge for the satisfaction of extroverts,
skeptics and low income favela residents that staying home is an excessive and
unnatural behavior, mostly associated with significant costs. So yes, you are
rightfully entitled to be irritated, frustrated, and stressed out. But if you
have a better solution just CRY IT OUT LOUD so that everyone would hear how
smart you are. And if you don’t, try your best to comply if you still want to
hug your grandma next Easter. Unfortunately, during this crisis situation
skeptics, minimizers, extroverts and favela residents are the perfect carriers
because their anxiety and worry have betrayed them or they have run out of
money for their third item on the list which was soap. And probably their only
cure - for skeptics and minimizers I mean, as extroversion is definitely
incurable and inheriting the grandpa’s favela was not an option - would be to
get sick, and shut up, and go home.
Note: If you happen to be a
journalist and think that every now and then I could contribute to the success
of your publication, be bold and came up with a good offer. However, bear in
mind that I only write about topics I deeply care, so let me drive the
roller-coaster.
Email: Bogdan.Tulbure@e-uvt.ro
[1] I am aware that both
prisoners and prison administrations are facing significant challenges when it
comes to following strict sanitary rules to prevent the widespread of COVID-19
in such environments. Such concerns are certainly justified as interventions to
change the situation for the better are difficult to implement there.
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