To say there are two viruses active in our society, the biochemical one and the fear virus in people’s minds, is no great revelation. But the way that the former triggered the latter, along with the pandemic lockdowns spreading across the globe like a self-kneecapping by the human species, is worth viewing from a psychological perspective.
The first question is how such draconian measures were carried out so swiftly and with such extraordinary compliance? Fear, of course, is the answer - using it, or in the coronavirus case, being used by it.
Fear of the virus is really fear of death - one's own, or a close relative's - one step removed. It isn’t catching Covid-19 that so scares the population, more the presence of one’s own mortality lurking inside this invisible, random agent that’s able to strike anyone, anytime, right to the top.
