Don Boys
The normalcy bias, unknown to most people, refers to the inclination for people to lessen the probability of possible threats or their dangerous repercussions. Consequently, the normalcy bias causes many people not to prepare for natural disasters, accidents, and world pandemics. In simple terms, it’s the ostrich effect; however, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand! They aren’t that stupid. When an ostrich senses danger, it falls to the ground and remains still.
When uneducated, unthinking, and unconcerned people sense danger, they look to the government—when often the government is the problem.
With the Chinese coronavirus, the world has experienced the first world lockdown, and it was done based on dubious evidence. Not only businesses (which I may add, are in business to do business) shut down and stopped doing business, but all schools, parks, and most churches closed their doors. Attending church or continuing your business one-on-one was illegal, but you could legally protest in huge crowds!
The funeral for former congressman John Lewis in Atlanta was said by the media to have abided by facemasks and social distancing guidelines; however, that was an obvious lie. The audience was seated close together and the singing team and soloist were not masked or separated. So, it’s legal to protest and go to state-approved funerals but not go to church or run your business!
Since when did any official have the authority, power yes, authority, no, to tell churches they must close? Or, if they could open, they could not sing or have more than ten congregants? Never has a nation or the world made such a sea change so quickly.
But that could never happen to us. But it did. “But, it can’t last forever.” Are you sure? “Well, government officials will never let it get so bad that we run out of food and water.” Are you sure about that?
The normalcy bias is a mental condition individuals experience when facing a disaster. It causes people to become vulnerable to approaching danger as they underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its potentially dangerous impact. This often results in situations where people fail to prepare for a disaster, and that failure can be catastrophic on a state or national scale.
It is a mental condition that convinces a person that since it has never happened before, it can’t happen. Or “it won’t happen to me.” After all, this is America. We are special; however, we are not immune from natural or man-made disasters.
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