24 March

I think there’s a scale of human response to disasters, which varies with the numbers of people impacted. With a smaller group impacted but most of the rest of us are OK, like the bushfires, we get ‘everybody pulling together’, the ‘great aussie spirit’ and all that nauseating rubbish. Then with a virus, as all of us are about to be impacted, in the early stages you get scapegoating. Hoarders in supermarkets. Unemployed bludgers getting extra benefits. The Chinese. Then when the virus actually impacts, there are no little places to stand to blame people from. It’s everybody for themselves. We’re arriving there now. All 3 stages though are really ‘I’m looking after me’. It just changes form. Pandemics reveal the true nature of us. And this isn’t some noble thing about how selfish we all are. We always look out for ourselves, no matter what else we call it. Sometimes the best way to do that is to help others. Another one of those pointless binaries, selfish/selfless.