The primitive minds create an echo chamber that can hinder the response of the higher minds when dealing with catastrophic situations. In this podcast, the author expresses concerns about whether humans are ready to respond to collective crises in the 21st century.
Social scientists from Ohio State University were sent to study people's disaster response after a disaster and to find ways to violently corral the citizenry once they panicked in a disaster. However, their expectation of violence and chaos was replaced with finding citizens taking care of each other without any instructions from others.
This episode discusses the importance of identifying the variables that truly matter from an epidemiological perspective in order to understand human interactions.
The guest speaker expresses their opinion on the future of society, stating that they have a long-term pessimism regarding the forces outside of our control but have short-term optimism in the potential for social networks to expand local love and kindness at scale.
When faced with discussions on controversial topics, it's important to develop a strategy to cope with what's being heard. However, it's also important to recognize when one is overly fixating on a topic and to maintain a sense of balance in conversation.
The pandemic has highlighted many issues such as food insecurity and disparities in health, and has worsened the existing mental health crisis, making it a perfect time to rethink how mental health is addressed as a country, not just in terms of preventing mental illness, but recognizing mental well-being as a significant factor.