Missed Opportunities of a Pandemic?

 

Have we missed an opportunity to hold a common cause? There was a time in early March 2020 when society seemed to be thrown into turmoil. Non essential businesses to be shut, only necessary social contact could be made. Toilet rolls and pasta started disappearing from shelves. Queues at petrol pumps. Anxiety and fear as to whether we would have enough. Like the ‘prepper’s had finally been vindicated. Then the day came, shutters went down.

As their clang echoed to silence, another sound started. It was the sound of phones being picked up, of distanced door knockings, real voices of concern. Once the panic of being separated subsided, people realized that it wasn’t like 28 Days Later. For the first time in my life, there was a palpable sense of togetherness vibrating through the country. Not the ‘We’re all in this together’ spouted by politicians, but a togetherness that rose organically. Peoples lives had been forced to slow. We had time to think. Our neighbours became more important. Errands were run for those who, up until 3 weeks ago, were strangers. I think it made such a difference that this happened in Spring, a time of natural emergence and re-awakening, just at a time when everything seemed to be being mothballed, shut and hibernated.

There was a feeling that social distancing, looking after others, helping those who needed help, came, not from Westminster advice or law, but because once we slowed down and had that time to take in the bigger picture, there was space for the intrinsic nature of human compassion to grow. Now, I’m not saying there weren’t those who flouted guidelines or carried on as normal, but there was an air of doing what had to be done for the greater good. Remember clapping for carers? Remember the appreciation we had for keyworkers? The rainbows on peoples windows?

And this is the nub of what I’m getting at. Society was at a point where enough people started looking at the greater good. Not going out not just because they didn’t want to catch the virus, but because they didn’t want to spread it. Asking if Mrs Jones, who couldn’t get out because she was shielding, needed a loaf from the shop. Green shoots were starting to grow, not just in garden borders, but in the cracks of peoples consciousness. There were hopes that nurses would finally get the pay and, more importantly, the recognition, they deserve. Bus drivers, refuse collectors, community stalwarts, volunteers, accommodation for the homeless. There were hopes for the environment. A social cohesion was starting. Maybe, just maybe.

Now, I’m not sure where the novelty started to wear thin. But just as we seem to have a natural ability for compassion, the facility for self interest doesn’t lay dormant for long. It first hit home for me when I started tasting diesel fumes in the air again as people started deciding that the ‘stay at home’ message excluded them. Much as a smoker ignores ‘Smoking Kills’ or a drinker decides not to ‘Drink Responsibly’ (both of which I have done myself), so people started finding exceptions to the rule that suited their needs. And once one person makes this exception, the next persons self-interest begins to argue “well, if they can, why not me?”. Patience turned to inconvenience. And inconvenience is something to be overcome, right?

New divisions began to grow, older one's more entrenched. Anti-maskers, Covidiots, pandemic deniers, Big Pharma plots. One common cause began to splinter into scores, each driven by self interest and the need to be right. As everything fragmented, leaders attempted to hold them all together, placating some while ignoring others. Unenforceable laws and weak guidelines underpinning growing distrust and hatred played out daily in the media.

It is said that Britain is at its best at a time of crisis. I think that’s really sad. Not sad because we’re able to pull together in times of adversity, that is wonderful. But sad that it takes a population-threatening crisis for it to be achieved. And sadder still, that it only lasts so long. I don’t know why compassion is so easily forgotten in the face of self interest. And I don’t know why I was so naive to think that a national ground-swell of it could last.