Coronavirus Shows Us How Human Beings Are Doing Overall

We are fantastic. Also, terrible.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …

Never before has the first few words of this famous opening line written by Charles Dickens in his 1859 book ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ seemed so apt.

Of course, it’s not like this isn’t true much of the time anyway, it’s just not so obvious. We are constantly surrounded by the peak of human achievement and the trough of human behavior co-existing simultaneously. Imagine, for example, being mugged by a drug addict in the shadows of a beautiful twelfth century cathedral — the best and worst of us being juxtaposed in a single image.

Covid-19 has simply exposed those two camps, dragging its members into the light as much as the members of each group try to avoid it for entirely different reasons. But this time its not the have’s and have not’s — since there is apparent crossover independent of wealth, creed, age, colour or, in fact, any other discernible criteria — this time it’s simply about the ‘Selfless’ and the ‘Idiots’.

The Selfless, for the most part, want to avoid the limelight. They don’t understand it or need it. They are wired to help as much as they can in every way possible without fanfare or recognition. They will do everything from the comparatively tiny act of leaving that pack of pasta for the next person in a panic buying crisis, to checking on their hitherto unknown neighbors or volunteering to support their health workers by making sure they are fed and have transport.

The list, actually, is endless, and the very nature of the way they execute it means that most will probably never know the full extent of what they do.

They appreciate being thanked personally, but will be shy about publicly recognized on social media. For them, their time is something that is given away freely and without condition or expectation of reward.

The Idiots, of course, are wired in the exact opposite way. Their positive is the Selfless gang’s negative and vice versa. Their existence, as they see it, is more important than everyone else’s and those others are simply tools to be used to achieve that end.

An Idiot wouldn’t think twice about taking that extra pack of pasta (or a few others if they can get it), sneaking in line or, in fact, breaking any other rules to get ahead. They, of course, will see it as ‘self preservation’ and they will tell people it’s a dog-eat-dog world. In their minds, Darwinian theory is uppermost and only the fittest survive.

This was probably true a few thousand years ago, when survival was all that was on our minds, but we’ve moved on. Today we have a society where we are all dependent and interdependent on each other. There’s no longer any place for this behavior, and yet we still see it on a daily basis, especially since the ubiquitous adoption of smart phones and their high definition cameras.

Most Idiots will refuse to acknowledge they’re in that category, as much as the most true Selfless would refuse to acknowledge they are in theirs, lest they are publicly thanked. Idiots will also be unapologetic for any action they take, will refuse to take any responsibility and apparently have absolutely no qualms about what others think of them. But is this surprising if those ‘others’ are the ones who are ‘expendable’?

Coronavirus has created a caricature of both of these camps. A cursory glance of my Twitter feed is full of beautiful, heart warming moments of exemplary humanism caught on camera, or lovingly produced messages to encourage and support, interspersed with hatred, blame and bad taste gifs designed to hurt, humiliate or alienate people.

As I scroll through the posts, I regularly swing from having immense pride of being part of the human race, to utter shame of being associated with it, and then back again, over and over, like a giant heavily weighted pendulum with a wide, sweeping, never ending arc.

For every person who has gone out of their way to help someone who needs them, there is someone loading up their pickup with every item in a store, feeling very pleased with themselves as they do so. Hell, in today’s market, you can sell it a profit, right?

Of course, these are the extremes. Most of us sit somewhere between the two. We are all Selfless, we are all Idiots. Sometimes even we can’t be quite sure where we’ll nail our colors to the mast until the situation arrives.

Could a Selfless be tempted to take that last loaf of bread under the nose of someone who is desperate for it if they themselves were starving?

Could an Idiot donate some of their excess supplies when they see an appeal that, for reasons they don’t quite understand, makes them think twice?

Of course they could. There’s no question we are all capable of the best, and the worst, at any time. It’s simply all a question of percentages isn’t it? You’re much more likely to disobey government restrictions and risk infecting others by having a party if you’re more than 50% Idiot, just as you’re much more likely to stay at home and set up virtual neighborhood support groups online if you’re over 50% the other way.

So, if we stepped back and looked at our little blue green planet from miles away and had to make an objective summary of what we saw, how would we say we are doing as we find ourselves gripped in this global health and economic crisis?

Will we survive and come through stronger? Or will we go all ‘Walking Dead’ on our fellow man?

I guess that’s all going to come down to our collective percentage in the final analysis isn’t it?

For me, however, it’s easy.

I can only guess at my Selfless/Idiot percentage but I do know for sure that I’m 100% optimist. We will prevail. We will be better.

Of course, when we come through the other side, the Idiots will probably claim it’s all because of them.

Sigh.

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