Periods of disruption and turmoil have a tendency to expose our true selves. The insights thus gleaned are not always comforting. For instance, a man may feel convicted that he is especially courageous, but placed suddenly in a situation of danger, he may find—to his surprise—that he has turned tail and run.
We have entered a period of disruption. A pandemic is sweeping the globe. Already tens of thousands have died, and it seems likely that tens of thousands more will die before this is over. Whereas just a month ago it seemed that the world was safely under control, now everything is in flux. A month ago, we were comfortably making plans for the following month, or year, or even the next five years; now we are wondering what the next day will hold. For many, the fact that modern medical science has not—as we naively thought—permanently banished the spectre of large outbreaks of communicable disease has come as a shock to the system. We are being tried in the crucible of disruption. . .
