[lavishlatern]

How is the current pandemic now causing dread in people? Sure, most people experience existential crises individually, but now we have an event that is causing a lot of people to experience it at once.

In fact, the first time existentialism became mainstream was in the aftermath of World War II, a large scale global disaster that shook people's faith in God and Government (capital G). Is the coronavirus pandemic not the most global disaster since WWII?

[colechristensen]

The feeling i get from reading existentialist works compared to the popular usage of the word existential are quite far separated, the same goes for any school of thought with a name entering the popular vocabulary (i.e. cynic, stoic, hedonist, ...)

In scope, even more global than WWII, in intensity though, nowhere remotely close... very different kinds of situation that don’t easily draw comparison.

[lavishlatern]

I mean existentialism literally gained popularity post WWII. See how much more popular Neitszche and Kierkegaard became many years after they had died. Camus, on the other hand, was celebrated during his lifetime.

Is it so absurd to think that the pandemic is probably one of the worst events many people today have ever experienced? One of the reoccurring themes of existentialism is that individuals form their own meaning, a meaning that may be radically altered if they've lost their job due to the pandemic, have been hospitalized due to the pandemic, or have lost someone to the pandemic.

[colechristensen]

1 in 1800 people has died in the US, and about 1 in 50 has tested positive. The rest of us have to stay home from work and can't go out to restaurants?

There's unemployment spikes, but that has happened before too... say, 2009? Several other previous recessions?

For some people it's the worst, certainly many have died... but the average person? the median person? Yes there's the inconvenience and stress of social isolation, yes there's unemployment... but still let's keep things in perspective, comparing it to a world war is a bit extravagant. Whole cities were bombed out of existence, the infrastructure of Europe was completely destroyed, the deaths around the world were enormous in places and primarily young people in the prime of their lives...

It just doesn't compare. Not that it isn't a very difficult situation all around, but don't overrate people's suffering.

[627467]

I agree that anyone who has lived or learned through great conflicts (world wars, bloody civil wars, great leap forward, etc) will have a hard time to compare this pandemic to any of that and yet, the reaction I see in many (too many) acquaintances is that of trauma. It's very odd because none of them have be directly impacted by covid yet but they are pretty sure it will happen and when it happen it will be nasty. So yes... In a very (millennial?) way, many people may imagine they are living through very traumatic times.

Watching Netflix at home, WFH, etc... While awaiting "certain covid" of course, its only for the privileged.

For the not so privileged the trauma can be easily compared to violent times: it's all about unemployment, domestic violence, hunger, collateral death, etc

[mercer]

It's not just about the direct impact of Covid, though. In my millennial-and-younger circles there are plenty who have been directly affected, but also many who still have work, but are deeply worried about their future prospects, not just when it comes to work, but also in regards to political turmoil and climate change.

They get a cat instead of a kid, they expect to never be able to buy a home, they expect not to have a pension and to enter the later stages of their life in a climate of turmoil and an ever-decreasing safety net.

Whether that's true, of course, is debatable. But it's been somewhat surprising and very painful to see how many of the 30-and-below people around me are utterly pessimistic about their future prospects on various axes. The pandemic mostly registered to them as a punch to the gut, and as something that probably accelerates a number of their other concerns. If anything, it /hasn't/ been too traumatic because they were already pessimistic.

[bawolff]

The original poster said since ww2, not same as ( > not >= ).

I imagine the spectre of nuclear armegedon during the height of the cold war was pretty scary, so maybe its still a false claim, but its hard for me to say as i wasn't alive then. I will say that i think this year has been one of the most anxious of my life, only partially due to covid.

[jacobush]

The 80s had a very menacing undertone you quickly caught if you went to the library and read about the nuclear arsenal. If not, it was pretty peachy, you might have missed the nuclear holocaust threat almost entirely.

[mensetmanusman]

This is certainly factually correct.

It’s interesting that our current ‘modern’ culture focuses on feelings much more, such that someone may feel they are going through something worse than WW2 and we to affirm their feelings or we are ‘hating’ them.