The presidential election has come and gone (well, come and gone except for Trump and his hard core of disciples). . .
What will 2021 bring? Will the virus vaccine alleviate the covid hysteria? Will the Trump disciples lose faith in his presidential resurrection and rejoin the American herd in a stampede to *normal?*
Who knows?
What interests me more is: do we even really know what the Powder Keg American Summer and the surreal Fall Election were really all about?
What was the meaning behind the antics of the Anarchists, the Wall of Moms, the White Girls in Short-Shorts, the Skater Rats, the MAGA Militia LARPers, the Race Karens, the Mask Karens, the Election Deniers?
One thread ties them all together:
The virus, as a new and sudden reminder of our mortality, triggered it all.
Our mortality, which we bury under what we call *living,* and consisting of our shared cultural goals (acquisition of life's necessities via the agreed upon path that is termed *making a living*) along with our individual obsessions/addictions (the private behaviors of our *free time*), was thrown into our maskless face by the coronavirus pandemic.
Quite simply, the awakened fear of death lay behind all the 2020 chaos. . .
I asked Sheldon Solomon, the esteemed American social psychologist and author of The Worm At The Core: On The Role Of Death In Life, if he found room for agreement.
Dr. Solomon has spent decades studying the effects of the awareness of death on our thoughts, feelings and behavior. His *Terror Management Theory* posits that humans rid themselves of their terror of death through cultural belief systems (or worldviews) that imbue life with meaning, and the individuals who subscribe to them with significance (or self-esteem).
It is with that background in mind that I asked Dr. Solomon the following questions:
Q: What observable effect on the population, if any, have you noticed since the emergence of the sudden threat covid-19, a new and unexpected, and not therefore repressed, reminder of death?
A: NOT YET. RATHER, WHAT I HAVE NOTICED (SIMILAR TO THE AFTERMATH OF 9/11) IS A GENERAL MAGNIFICATION/AMPLIFICATION OF ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS ALONG THE LINES OF WHAT WE FIND IN OUR RESEARCH WHEN WE REMIND PEOPLE OF DEATH – FOR BETTER AND WORSE.
{For readers wishing the specifics of the attitudes and behaviors referenced in Dr. Solomon's answer, please read https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-you-of-death-and-amplifies-your-core-values-both-bad-and-good-137588}
Q: Was there a combined effect of the virus and the often replayed sudden death of George Floyd that created a mass anxiety in the young?
Q: What observable effect on the population, if any, have you noticed since the emergence of the sudden threat covid-19, a new and unexpected, and not therefore repressed, reminder of death?
A: NOT YET. RATHER, WHAT I HAVE NOTICED (SIMILAR TO THE AFTERMATH OF 9/11) IS A GENERAL MAGNIFICATION/AMPLIFICATION OF ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS ALONG THE LINES OF WHAT WE FIND IN OUR RESEARCH WHEN WE REMIND PEOPLE OF DEATH – FOR BETTER AND WORSE.
{For readers wishing the specifics of the attitudes and behaviors referenced in Dr. Solomon's answer, please read https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-you-of-death-and-amplifies-your-core-values-both-bad-and-good-137588}
Q: Was there a combined effect of the virus and the often replayed sudden death of George Floyd that created a mass anxiety in the young?
A: PERHAPS—
Q: Did the not yet repressed or compartmentalized fear of sudden death contribute to the summer long BLM protests, which could then be viewed as a myth-ritual complex, an opportunity for giving the protesters' lives a heroic meaning that then alleviated their fear of death?
A: ABSOLUTELY IN MY ESTIMATION. MY GUESS IS THAT GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE EFFECT THAT IT DID WITHOUT THE VIRUS SERVING AS A POTENT AND PERVASIVE SOURCE OF MORTALITY SALIENCE AND IMPELLING PROGRESSIVES TO “DO THE RIGHT THING” IN ACCORD WITH THEIR LIBERAL WORLDVIEW AS A HEROIC EFFORT TO TRANSCEND DEATH.
Q: Did the conservative right embrace Trump's consistent virus denials and then make him a fetish object, endowing him with the transcendent power they lack to combat the virus, and thus they cannot accept his removal from the White House without having to find another palliative for their fear of death?
A: ABSOLUTELY IN MY ESTIMATION. ORANGE HITLER IS A FETISH OBJECT – PEOPLE WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LOSE IT – EVEN THOUGH HE’S LITERALLY KILLING THEM BY DIVESTING THEM OF HEALTHCARE, INFRASTRUCTURE, SOCIAL SERVICES, AND IS NOW DEMANDING THAT THEY WANDER AROUND THE COUNTRY WITHOUT MASKS OR SOCIAL DISTANCING ETC.
Q: Are there any observations on the 2020 chaos you would like to share?
Q: Did the conservative right embrace Trump's consistent virus denials and then make him a fetish object, endowing him with the transcendent power they lack to combat the virus, and thus they cannot accept his removal from the White House without having to find another palliative for their fear of death?
A: ABSOLUTELY IN MY ESTIMATION. ORANGE HITLER IS A FETISH OBJECT – PEOPLE WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LOSE IT – EVEN THOUGH HE’S LITERALLY KILLING THEM BY DIVESTING THEM OF HEALTHCARE, INFRASTRUCTURE, SOCIAL SERVICES, AND IS NOW DEMANDING THAT THEY WANDER AROUND THE COUNTRY WITHOUT MASKS OR SOCIAL DISTANCING ETC.
Q: Are there any observations on the 2020 chaos you would like to share?
A: I THINK EINSTEIN WAS ON TO SOMETHING BELOW!
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein
I thank Dr. Solomon for taking the time to share his views.
