Shelter and a totally frightened society

Toilet paper is hoarding because of Corona, shelters are looking for because of the Ukraine war. We in the West should once again take an old adage to heart: what we should fear most is our fear.

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It is paradoxical: since 1989 we have been celebrating the victory of capitalism over communism in the western hemisphere. We flock to the cinemas by the thousands to relish the fictional end of the world in Hollywood blockbusters (each brought about by “terrorists”, “the Russians” or, much more prosaically, asteroids) and stock the cellars with champagne and red wine .

But no sooner has the world situation thrown us down to earth than our self-confidence and light-heartedness leaves us: Covid is creeping up – and we are hoarding toilet paper. Putin is bombing the Ukraine – and we’re grabbing iodine tablets or pestering the authorities with questions about shelters. Thinking about it coolly: A shelter is undoubtedly good for a war with conventional weapons. It is highly unlikely that such a event will take place in this country. So we’re sheltering in the bunker from a nuclear war? What would be the point of such a step, which would add a few (fearful) days to life?

“All we have to fear is our fear,” said US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. How valid his thought is! If we irrationally hoard toilet paper or look for shelters, we as a society give off such a frightened image that our enemy, who threatens our liberal order, has already won half a victory.