I can't think of a bigger crisis in my lifetime. What were you thinking that might be bigger in the past 55 years?
@TravelTime - Sorry for the delay in responding!
Since posting that question, here are some of the thoughts and recollections that went through my mind (these are NOT in any particular order):
- The first significant crisis I remember was the Iran Hostage Crisis on the heels of gas shortages. I was old enough to get a sense of what this meant in the larger sense (more so than Watergate as I was too young to remember that in any detail). I don't want to go too much into my feelings on this lest someone come after I post this and think it to be too political but I will say this event occurred just as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and President Carter's actions / decisions influenced me to an extent where I dismissed the military as an option.
- I recall Black Monday as the first crisis that really game me pause on what the future would hold because even though it wasn't a large amount, I recall watching my 401K account lose a LOT of value then. That was the first financial crisis I can recall and likely because it hit me personally.
- 9/11 - and what happened because of 9/11 was probably the most significant crisis to me. Again, a lot of money lost in the financial markets but also a lot of jobs lost here too. I was in the technology sector and was a high performer but that did not save my job. The fact it was hard to feel safe in a sea of people who had immigrated to this country AND the loss of retirement funds AND the layoffs that ensued after (and because of) 9/11 put this event at the top of my list as the most significant crisis.
- The Oklahoma City bombing was really the first crisis that made me feel less than safe because it did happen somewhere one wouldn't expect.
- The 2008 financial crisis - but having been through 2 of those previously, the impact was not as much as the other two financial crisis I remember.
For some reason, I just can't place COVID 19 in the same category as the items I mentioned above BUT I think it is fair to say COVID 19 is a different type of crisis than the above I listed. There is a sense of proximate randomness with COVID 19 the other crisis cannot match because COVID 19 is playing out over a longer time frame (and I think that desensitizes us to an extent). That is NOT meant to suggest COVID 19 is not serious (clearly, it is) but unlike all the above events EXCEPT Iran Hostage, we have become 'used' to its presence in a sense.
I wanted to add this thought too because it extends a point I was trying to make above:
@needvaca said (in part):
....The “perspective” I got from this is thank God we have the science, technology and worldwide information to prevent Covid from becoming the Spanish flu with 50+ million deaths. And grateful that we have enough world unity so that we haven’t had a world war with mass casualties in 60+ years.
So grateful that society is constantly progressing and learning so that, although not perfect, we handle each crisis better and with more knowledge.
I have to wonder if the opposite isn't true given the state of social media these days. The cacophony that accompanies every single news story these days seems to be creating an environment where learning and the exchange of ideas in order to build a better solution cannot exist because the "Instant Press" has to immediately determine a winner and a loser in every story.
Our opportunities to build, to think, to assess, to critique, to revise for the purpose of building that better mousetrap (so to speak) are being drowned out.
I don't see this as a positive.
I wonder if the last sentence of Needvaca's point - are we really progressing and learning? But even more importantly, are we advancing our 'knowledge' or are we advancing what one side (or the other) perceives as knowledge?