IN A DARK TIME -
EDITED BY NICHOLAS HUMPHREYAND ROBERT JAY LIFTON
So, let's just stop and pause for a moment, shall we? The official number of Covid-19 related deaths in the UK is around 43,000 at the moment though rising all the time. The atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki killed an estimated 45,000 people on impact which means the number of Covid deaths within the UK is the near-equivalent of an atomic bomb being dropped on it, though killing disparately and in slow motion. It took two atomic bombs being dropped (the first, of course, being on Hiroshima) for Japan to throw up its arms (and to lay down its arms) and surrender. This proud nation whose credo could once said to have been 'death before dishonour' knew that it was beat and could not tolerate any more death and destruction from such devastating and fearsome fire power.
When it comes to Covid-19, surrender is not an option though the idea of herd immunity could be construed as a form of it. There is, however, no actual immunity from Covid-19 not even - as the likes of Boris Johnson once presumed - an Eton education, which puts the ruling elite in a bit of a quandary: What to do? Evidently, they have no answer so they flounder and act like headless chickens. Life and destruction (of the economy)? Or death and no destruction (of the economy)?
In A Dark Time is a collection of writings about 'the psychological and imaginative confusion which surrounds popular ideas of war, of valour, of victory over enemies and death', composed by a couple of eminent psychiatrists and psychologists. Robert Jay Lifton is a psychiatrist who has made a close study of human reactions to disaster and loss of identity; and Nicholas Humphrey is an experimental psychologist who has worked on the evolution of intelligence and human social consciousness.
First published in 1984, the book's main focus is the spectre of nuclear war that was all-prevailing back then but if you squint your eyes and focus solely on present times, parts of it can very easily be translated into Covid-19, global pandemic terms. It's a brutal and depressing read but in the same way the songs of Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed's Berlin album can be viewed as 'songs to slit your wrists to', it is also at the same time curiously uplifting. Hope springs eternal, as they say. In the midst of life we are in death and vice versa.
Interestingly, among all the various quotes from philosophers, military leaders, pundits and poets, some of the most insightful observations come from the two least famous names in the whole book - the actual editors themselves. For example, how many times have we heard people say about Covid-19 'if you're going to catch it you're going to catch it and there's nothing to be done about it'? As though fully resigned to the idea? Nicholas Humphrey writes of the same fatalism but in regard to nuclear war: 'The continuing nuclear weapons cycle in any country depends on the collusion, or at least compliance, of most of the people. But we can now identify a certain psychological combination taking shape: Fear and a sense of threat break through the prior stage of numbing; these uncomfortable feelings in turn raise the personal question of whether one should take some form of action to counter the danger; that question becomes an additional source of conflict, associated as it is with feelings of helplessness and doubts about efficacy; and one seeks a psychological safe haven of resignation ('Well, if it happens, it happens - and it will happen to all of us') and cynicism ('They'll drop it all right and it will be the end of all of us - that's the way people are, and that will be that'). That stance prevents one from feeling too fearful, and, equally important, it protects one from conflict and anxiety about doing something about the situation. If the situation is hopeless, one need do nothing. There is a particularly sophisticated version of resignation-cynicism that one encounters these days mainly at universities, which goes something like this: 'Well, what is so special about man? Other species have come and gone, so perhaps this is our turn to become extinct?' This is perhaps the ultimate above-the-battle position. Again nothing is to be done, one is philosophically detached from it all. All of these add up to a stance of waiting for the bomb and contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy of universal doom.' See? This could easily be about Covid-19.
The paradox here, however, is that amidst the doom and gloom of our current Covid situation there also lies absolute and total opportunity for something that in the past we could only dream: The chance for change. The chance of a new and better world. I mean, what is all this rubbish about wanting a return to normal, to how things used to be pre-Covid? A return to normal is a return to a world heading for a precipice. A world of deep inequality and suffering where above it hangs a suicide wish. We need to understand that the way the world was and to all intent and purpose still is, is not the only world possible. It is not the high-point and end-point of human existence. In the grand scheme of things it is a mere blip. An aberration, even. A wrong turn.
For sure, a lot of people have done very well from how the world is but at what cost and to whom? Of course those who have had it comfortable wish to return to that same comfort. Why wouldn't they? But what about all the others? Those whose lives are squandered for the benefit of those in comfort? Those who are born into ruins and are held there to enable others to live in veritable mansions in comparison? Is Covid-19 making their lives even harder? Hardly. It's a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. It's a relatively simple exchange of one life of hardship for another. But it's still hardship.
Right now the way the world is has taken a Covid-19 body blow and it is on the ropes. The question then is do we help it back up onto its feet and then resume our seats and let the show go on as it was? Or do we help it back up but on condition it changes its ways? Do we seize the moment and deliver a knock-out blow? The ruling elite might be floundering and acting like headless chickens but at least they know where they want to go - and that's straight back to their lives of comfort and consequently full steam ahead toward the precipice again. We, however (and by 'we' I mean those who seek a change in the way the world is run), are also floundering but unlike the elite we're not sure where we want to go. But that's also the beauty of it. Our time is now. This is the morning of our lives. As Buenaventura Durruti once declared: "We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth, there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin their own world before they leave the stage of history but we carry a new world in our hearts. And that world is growing this minute."
John Serpico
