Human
Resilience
“After
the war he turned his attention to natural disasters in the United States and
formulated a broad theory about social resilience. He was unable to find a
single instance where communities that had been hit by catastrophic events
lapsed into sustained panic, much less anything approaching anarchy. If
anything, he found that social bonds were reinforced during disasters, and that
people overwhelmingly devoted their energies toward the good of the community
rather than just themselves.”
Sebastian
Junger (Tribe, p. 52)
In this
excerpt from his book, Tribe, Sebastian Junger reports the research of Charles
Fritz, one of several members of the US Strategic Bombing Survey, posted in
England to evaluate the effectiveness of Allied bombing strategy
during World War II. What they found was that both in England and in Germany,
civilian resilience rose rather than fell in response to air raids. We see this
same resilience every time there is a natural disaster here in America. I live
in a part of the country known as “tornado alley.” Several times each year,
storms off the Gulf spawn tornadoes that run through various parts of Alabama
leaving death and destruction behind. Entire towns can be flattened by a single
twister, and often there is a pattern in which one street in a neighborhood is
leveled, and the next one is untouched. Ariel photos of the path of destruction
are breathtaking. Anytime this happens, before the sun sets on that same day,
people swarm the neighborhood—not to loot, but to help those affected begin the process of reclamation
and restoration. I have watched total strangers drive up in their vans, haul
out a barbeque grill and proceed to feed the whole assemblage of people.
In most
cases, we are at our very best when we are confronting something—anything—that
poses a threat to our survival, and the survival of people we love. The only
reason that is not happening now is that we are being driven apart by malicious
rhetoric—by hateful words meant to drive a wedge of anger and suspicion between
us. This pandemic is not the work of bad actors in China. It is not a hoax or a
“little flu,” and it is not the fault of democrats or Black Lives Matter
protestors, all of which are accusations I have personally heard. This is a naturally
occurring virus that does not care about our politics or our religion. It is
exceedingly contagious and sometimes deadly. The countries that have bent the
curve downward and saved thousands of lives are many of the same ones that
survived the world wars, and they have done it in the same way—by coming
together, by taking the bull by the horns and each person doing his/her part.
We are resilient
people. That has been proven over and over. We are simply our own worst enemy.
If we want to get back to “normal” and resume life as we knew it, then we must put
our differences aside, and have each other’s backs, we must pull together and do
what has to be done.
“Fritz’s
theory was that modern society has gravely disrupted the social bonds that have
always characterized the human experience, and that disasters thrust people
back into a more ancient, organic way of relating…disasters create ‘a community
of sufferers’ that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring
connection to others.” (Junger, p.53) That is what we need if we are to get through
this—reinforced and reassuring connections to one another.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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