Do you remember a time when we cared for our fellow man?
Do you remember having empathy?
Lockdown has taken a lot from everyone. That’s undeniable. When the world suddenly shutdown in March 2020, and then randomly proceeded to bounce between freedom and lockdowns, it left a lot of people struggling. For work, in school, with personal relationships, lockdown has affected everyone in one way or another. While everyone was focusing on stamping out the spread, something even more sinister has happened.
Without even realising it, almost everyone came out of lockdown with almost no empathy for others.
Just take a look around and see for yourself. You don’t even have to go that far. The comments on the local news comments are filled with enough vitriol that YouTube comments are looking sane. I’ve even had people admit that they no longer feel anything for anyone. There really are people out there wishing sickness, exile, and death on anyone that dares to against the group-think. Stop and think about that for a second – is someone who thinks differently such a danger that they should be dead? Surely not.
Yet the mob behaves as if this is not only acceptable, but something to cheer.
If lockdown did one thing successfully, it took away our humanity. It made us numb to the struggles of others. It forced us to focus on ourselves and only ourselves. And in doing so, we’ve forgotten that there is a living, breathing human on the other side. Someone with hopes and dreams. Someone like you. Someone who is just trying to make sense of the world.
Along the way, it seems as if we’ve forgotten about the golden rule – do unto others.
Lockdown has taken a lot from us.
Let’s at least try to keep our humanity.
