(philstar.com)
Umay paglingap? There are those who hoarded ethyl and isopropyl alcohol one
could ask what would they do about it? They are going to bathe using it? You
see, soap is still the best thing to use and alcohol with 70% solution can be
an alternative way of disinfecting the hands so with the sanitizers. We
understand that you are concerned about your health but what about the
well-being of others?
Self-preservation
according to the American Psychology Association is the fundamental tendency of
humans and nonhuman animals to behave so as to avoid injury and maximize
chances of survival (e.g., by fleeing from dangerous situations or predators).
Members of the
Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases
yesterday met at Malacañang and agreed to implement sweeping measures to
contain the spread of infection, including banning mass gatherings, extending
class suspensions and imposing “localized community quarantine” for areas with
confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Philstar.com
reported: It’s no “lockdown,” officials said, but Metro Manila is being placed
under a month-long “community quarantine” to contain the coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) starting March 15 to April 14 of this year.
These prompted the
people not just in Metro Manila but even in the provinces to head to the
nearest stores and started panic-buying.
When people panic-buy
it’s a “gesture”, Hinde (2020) explains – they’re doing something to help
themselves in an otherwise helpless situation. When we have no control over the
bigger picture, we crave control in our “micro world” – our home and daily
routines. And in this case, people are doing it by buying up supplies.
There’s also the fear
element – understandable when some people have died from Covid-19, although
only a small number in the UK. On top of that, people are scared of running out
of food or supplies, says Pankhania (2020), so there’s the basic survival
instinct of: “If I don’t have food, I’ll die.”
Is such fear an excuse
for NOT being emphatic in such situations? You see, even in dire situations the
sense of understanding that others also need stuff like food and alcohol for
their own survival, we have the ability to think and feel. Have we not, as
humans, transcended being animals?
Richard Taflinger in
his paper called The Biological Basis of Life (1996) said: Any form of life
must gather resources that allow it to survive and reproduce. The resources may
be food, water, sunlight, minerals, vitamins, shelter. Without these things,
the organism dies. Since the two most basic purposes of life are to live and to
reproduce, it should do everything it can to avoid dying through a lack of
resources.
Greed is one organism
getting a larger piece of the pie, more of the necessary resources, than other
organisms. For example, in the Amazonian rain forest, an occasional tree dies
and falls. This leaves an opening to the sun in the continuous canopy of
foliage. Plants and trees race each other to grow into that opening. The
winners in the race fill the hole; the losers die through lack of sunlight. The
greed for sunlight means life (Attenborough, 1990).
So that is it. Greed
thrives when there is a need to survive.
Recent research
indicates no decisive conclusion regarding whether humans are “fundamentally
generous or greedy and whether these tendencies are shaped by our genes or
environment.” (Robison, M, 2014). Studies seem to indicate we are both, and the
reasons are genetic, evolutionary, and environmental.
In cases of the
present situation, it seems that people are reacting to a stimulus. And this is
the fear caused by the COVID-19 which is being elevated by the World Health
Organization (WHO) as a pandemic. But then, we cannot also discredit the fact
that there are people who are genetically selfish or they are influenced by the
environment to act selfishly.
There is a need for
us to reflect on current situations rather than to perform reactive actions
(like panic buying). We need to understand that in situations like these, we
can contribute individually and be victorious as a whole.
People exert less
effort when performing in groups than when working alone. Based on the
collective effort model’s core principle that individuals are only willing to
work hard if they expect their individual contribution to be instrumental in
obtaining personally satisfying outcomes, there is a strong influence of
individual motive dispositions on group performance. Motive dispositions vary
from person to person and, when triggered by appropriate cues in the environment,
form the current motivation and determine behavior (Helkenmeier, 2018).
The scientists are
working hard to find a cure on this strain. We are afraid to be infected and we
worry about our family members. But then again, others also deserve to survive
not just ourselves. We can do this together.
Listen to the
authorities! They mean well.
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