In my history classes, people always joked about the fact that we were overdue for a plague, likely thinking it wouldn’t happen. Now here we are, cancelling large-scale events, closing down schools for the rest of the year, hoarding toilet paper, and locking ourselves away while preparing for the worst. Even returning to Sweet Briar to get my things felt strange; campus was more deserted than I’d ever seen it, and having to stop at the guard tower with its bright orange cones in the middle of the day felt almost ominous. I don’t think this is something any of us would have imagined even a month ago. For many of us, our mostly safe and normal world is beginning to feel like something out of a dystopian or apocalyptic novel.
There is an app that I’m sure many people have played — or at least heard of — called Plague Inc. The goal of the game is to start a plague that will wipe out the global population. Nations begin closing their borders, and the easiest way to win is to start in China. Knowing things like this and hearing the term “pandemic” cause people to panic and start behaving irrationally, sometimes forgetting their compassion and humanity in the process. This is similar to how characters behave in zombie movies — turning against each other while believing it is best for their self-preservation.
How quickly things have escalated just over the past few days also shows just how quickly something can change from an element of the fantastic to a reality. It reminds me of conversations we’ve had in class about scale — when does something that might be a bit strange or out of the ordinary become the fantastic? We can also look at dystopian novels from half a century ago. Many aspects of the then-unimaginable technology have been incorporated into devices we now use daily. This shows how closely many aspects of the fantastic are rooted in reality; just because something is fantastic right now doesn’t mean it can’t become the new normal in the future.
You are correct in that this is a reminder of how quickly life can go from normal to fantastic. I had no idea when I signed up for this class that we would be getting a first-hand experience! Will this become our new norm? What will we take and keep from this experience? Will it change the way we sit in classrooms ( I do have hopes for that!) Will it change forever the way we greet people, who we hug? Will we, like in The Memory Police just accept the changes? Stay safe and healthy!
I definitely agree that the term pandemic causes everyone to freak out! I think this is caused because we don’t have a pandemic everyday, so we don’t know how to act when we do have one. It is something that definitely freaks everyone out.
I agree with the people getting scared like in an apocalyptic movie. The way the masses behave is usually pretty predictable, especially in times of crisis.
I have to disagree about your point about people forgetting their humanity and compassion. One of the most beautiful things I’ve seen over the past few weeks is how well people have been coming together to support each other. When the whole state of Ohio started shutting down, my sister (who works for a public school) had a long conversation with me about the preparation that had gone into making sure kids were still getting fed, and the giant packing session their area Blessings in a Backpack had done the day before our governor announced all schools would be taking three weeks off. Personally, I had several people, including various alumnae, reach out to me when it was announced Sweet Briar was going remote because they knew I’m from far away and/or would have to put up with a kind of toxic family system if I went back to my hometown. (For the record, I’m okay.) I’ve heard a lot about similar displays of generosity and solidarity during these times. Sure, there have been price gougers and going to the grocery store is hell, but I would go so far as to say that ignoring how people have come together is frankly an insult to humanity.
I guess my phrasing wasn’t clear in that section of my post, because I wasn’t intending to say people don’t have compassion right now. That portion was theoretically talking about what could happen when people panic, comparing those behaviors to the fantastic. I wasn’t talking about how people are behaving because of the corona virus.
I love the final line of your post; it’s so true that so many things that happen nowadays (not bad things necessarily) would probably have been considered fantastic a hundred years ago, but to us, it’s all just normal.