Whether it is the blitz or an earthquake, riots or pandemics, our collective bonds are often forged in disasters, writes John Drury
Our experience of the coronavirus pandemic has been shaped by collective behaviour. As one we followed the advice to stay at home, together we clapped for carers. Many crowded on to beaches and many more marched for Black Lives Matter. And, as physical separation continues, we long for the return of nightclubs, gigs and religious ceremonies.
New bonds of community are often created by disaster, as Rebecca Solnit charts in A Paradise Built in Hell. The shanty town built by survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the self-organised evacuations New Yorkers arranged with strangers after 9/11, show how people facing a common fate can see themselves as belonging to a single group. Like the Covid-19 mutual aid groups we see today, these altruistic communities provide glimpses of an alternative world.
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