America’s Individualism Is Now Its Achilles’ Heel
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the dark side of our national self-image
From its onset, Covid-19 has baffled the American psyche.
For a culture that believes the most immediate, central, and important thing is the individual self, fully comprehending the danger of a virus that can turn individuals into weapons against one another is a difficult adjustment to make.
Logically, we understand that any effective response to virus that’s this transmissible—so mercilessly efficient at hopping from person to person that it glided the 7,477 miles from Wuhan to New York City in a matter of months—must be communal. Bar charts flash on screens, spots on maps multiply, and the message is clear: The curve should be kept down and the spots should be kept small.
But Americans don’t think of themselves as dots or lines. And the U.S. reaction to Covid-19 has shown how deeply psychologically underprepared the nation is for a communal threat—or a communal response. See for example: the people going to the gym amid an outbreak in New Rochelle, New York; the NBA player who, thinking it was playful rebelliousness, deliberately touched multiple surfaces at a press conference, and later tested positive for the virus; the packed bars and restaurants…
