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I fear that Frank Furedi is correct: “The culture of fear has made a lifetime of quarantine look attractive.” A slice:

The precautionary principle (nguyên tắc phòng ngừa/đề phòng) may have emerged from within environmentalism, but it now pervades all areas of life. It encourages us to feel fearful (lo sợ) and insecure (bất an) before the future. And it has led to safetyism – that is, the establishment of safety as the foundational value of Anglo-American culture.

We can see the deleterious (có hại, độc) impact of safetyism and worst-case thinking in the sphere of childhood (tuổi thơ, thời thơ ấu). Indeed, childhood has been increasingly organised around the anticipation of the worst possible outcome (kịch bản tồi tệ nhất). Parents are now reluctant (ngần ngại) to let their children out of their sight. And children have come to view themselves as fragile (mong manh) and vulnerable (dễ bị tổn thương). During the pandemic, this fearful view of childhood and children intensified. Children’s mental health (sức khỏe tinh thần) was said to be at risk, and their physical development threatened. This worst-case approach actually incited children to feel hopeless (vô vọng) about their future.

So, fear is socially dominant. But this is not fear as an emotion, which arises when we instinctively feel threatened. Rather, this is fear as a perspective, a cultural orientation towards the world. It provides the prism (lăng kính) through which we interpret everyday experience. It feeds risk-aversion (tránh rủi ro), a heightened sense of vulnerability, a preoccupation with safety, and a lack of confidence towards the future.

The prevalence of this fearful perspective is turning lockdown (phong tỏa) into something approaching a permanent state. Policymakers and commentators talk of ‘the new normal’ – a post-pandemic world in which freedoms and customs we once took for granted are no more. And public-health professionals frequently hint that social distancing between people will be in place for years to come.

Bài trước: Ngược hết cả