The COVID-19 pandemic really caught us unaware. We were rudely awakened from our complacency and insular attitudes. While pandemics are far from rare in human history, this one arrived just as social issues were bubbling up to the surface in world societies. What a strange trip it has been too.
The pandemic has served as a mirror to see the true value of things, ideas, and people. From revealing the variable integrity of our leaders to the realization that people are more easily deceived and bullied than we thought, we have been learning some tough life lessons.
Pandemic Physiology Really Matters
Besides the obvious effects of infection with the COVID-19 virus, social and political upheaval play significant roles in our daily stress of life. While I am not promoting the agenda of any specific tribe, we are bombarded with demands that we think and behave in specific ways. Some of these demands conflict with our established ways of thinking and behaving. As these demands change from one day to the next, the stress on our physiology and psychology increases.
This mismatch between what we know and what we are told we should do, produces a situation called cognitive dissonance. The conflicting ideas stress our emotions, thoughts, and bodies.
Our fight-or-flight response is designed for use in emergencies only (i.e. running away from that charging bear). A healthy response at an inappropriate time. Cognitive dissonance engages this sympathetic response and eventually produces a decidedly unhealthy state of health. Heart disease, hypertension, weight gain, etc. can all result from a chronic stress condition. Significant psychological changes like anxiety and memory impairment may also result.
Chronic stress adversely effects all our body systems.
Emotions Running High
An existential threat like the COVID-19 pandemic is understandably emotional. No one likes to seriously think about dying but disease manages to bring the idea of death to the forefront.
The insecurity of people however surprised me. We as a population are not as self-secure and independent (read: brave) as we had previously advertised.
Emotional maturity also turned out to be a bigger question than originally thought. From ranting leaders acting upon their personal fears being expressed as a need to control others, to people literally hiding themselves away from the world, fear has factored prominently.
I am hopeful that the big takeaway from these events is that not everything is about emotions.
Communication
If the 1960’s was the age of Aquarius, the pandemic may become to be known as the age of the bully. From being told what and how to think to a cultural phenomenon that prides itself on behaving in a strictly adversarial fashion, communicating with one another has been especially challenging.
In my undergraduate education, a Philosophy course in Logic was pivotal for preparing me for problem-solving required in Life. The class showed me what constitutes a valid argument and what does not. When words fail to connect ideas, we lose communication with each other.
- Occasional gaffes notwithstanding, a nonsensical word salad is not an adequate answer to a direct question. Neither is using an unrelated situation to support your argument (my feet hurt today, therefore it must be because you are wearing blue jeans).
- Shouting the loudest does not mean you won the argument. Often in life, the best we can hope for is to agree to disagree. Not everything is a win.
- If alienating others does not produce your desired results, why persist?
- Declining to have a sense of humor about things does not stop others from teasing you. Lighten up.
- Like fairy tale wishes, repeating an idea often does not eventually create a reality. Work creates reality. Actions still speak louder.
- Shrill politicized philosophy coming from corporations really does little to help to promote their products and/or services. It sounds silly too.
- Historical facts work better than historical confabulations when supporting one’s arguments. Lying about supporting facts still tends to work against the integrity of the speaker.
Humans are social animals and interpersonal communications require talking and listening – both. Good and bad are wonderful societal ideals. Demanding that people conform to a one-size-fits-all version of life, with all its inherent contradictions, produces stress in people.
Actions
- Idealism is a wonderful thing to have but it does not always work in the real world. Trying to make the world around us conform to our group or individual concepts of what should be is an exercise in frustration.
- Aspiring to better the world in which we live is always an admirable undertaking. Trying to shout your new world order into reality is less likely to be successful. Life is about doing.
- Feeling offended does not effectively make change happen. Life is still about doing. Take that emotional energy of offense and channel it to build the new and improved world. Construct a difference.
- Impeding another persons work is not the same doing something constructive. In the same way as responding “No it isn’t” to an idea is not useful, denial without an alternative solution is not helpful in a problem-solving situation. Join in the effort to solve the problem facing everyone and help build a solution.
- As we have seen demonstrated by far too many leaders during the pandemic, indecision sucks. There is a time to assess the situation, but forward movement is still demanded. Even when we are unsure of ourselves or our decisions, move forward. Mistakes will happen and we fix them along the way. Keep moving.
- We really need to understand that there is often no clear-cut answer to Life’s problems– ambiguity abounds!
- Radical group thinking is not helpful when facing a physical pandemic. Philosophical concerns and debates will always be with us. Determining each person’s philosophical/political adherence is a great exercise as a person navigates their respective societies but such conceptual arguments are not helpful in solving immediate problems at hand. Doing still trumps philosophy when solving tangible problems.
Growing Up in Our Pandemic World
Now is the time to learn from our experiences.
No matter what your opinion, kindness is still the best response to our pandemic world. An emotional tantrum is not necessary to get a point across. Practice care and respect with one another. We have the capacity to be strong or weak of character. Let us choose to be strong of character even when we don’t feel strong.
Allow the healing process to begin. Move beyond past events to build current relationships.
Sometimes the best response to bullying is not responding. It takes two to make that adversarial relationship. I have walked away from a number of fights in my time. (Pick your battles – not every fight is worth the effort.) The abuser is left without a partner when the other declines to play. Try it.
Make up your own mind. Collect reliable information and decide what you want. The group will always be there but when the group’s rules conflicts with your own, determine what your version is. You will feel much better. Remember that listening to another viewpoint is not the same as agreement with them.
Despite especially loud reports to the contrary, the sky really is not falling. There is a cyclical nature to society, as with all Nature, and these sources of stress in our lives shall soon pass.
Be Healthy.
I made a promise to myself that I was never going to allow anyone to define me and determine my personal sense of value.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/crawford-isiaah-1960/
–Isiaah Crawford
You must be logged in to post a comment.