During World War II the Germans sought to overtake London. The British military, panicked by their conclusion that there was nothing they could do to stop it, predicted that the attack would leave hundreds of thousands of people dead, millions injured, and mass chaos that would result in an economic downfall. This is exactly what the Germans were hoping for.
Just a few years later the bombings began. Just as the British military predicted, thousands of people died and were injured and a million buildings were left standing in ruin. What the British military didn’t get right was the assumed panic amongst its people.
As the bombings continued, the people of London became resilient. One English psychiatrist wrote that as bomb sirens were alarmed, “Small boys continued to play all over the pavements, shoppers went on haggling, a policeman directed traffic in majestic boredom and the bicyclists defied death and the traffic laws. No one, as far as I could see, even looked into the sky.”
While Londoners were known to be a tough bunch, this wasn’t just a miraculous behavior unique to the people of London. Civilians from other countries also turned out to be unexpectedly resilient in the face of bombing.
Canadian psychiatrist J.T. MacCurdy in his book, The Structure of Morale explains why.
MacCurdy says that when a bomb falls, people are divided into three different groups. The first group is the direct hits. The people who die. Of course, the deaths of these people are incredibly tragic and worthy of mourning but the people that fall into this group no longer have an effect on society. They themselves can’t cause fear and panic because they are no longer alive. As MacCurdy puts it, “the morale of the community depends on the reaction of the survivors.”
The survivors make up the other two groups, near misses and remote misses. Near misses, “feel the blast, they see the destruction, are horrified by the carnage, perhaps they are wounded, but they survive deeply impressed.” Impressed meaning these people can be left in a shock or stupor from their traumatic experience.
Near misses do have an ability to create and spread the assumed panic for a society going through hard times. How this group responds is very important.
The third group is the remote misses. Remote misses are the people who are essentially unaffected. The bombs have fallen far enough from them that the consequences are much less than the first two groups. As MacCurdy puts it, “a near miss leaves you traumatized. A remote miss makes you think you are invincible.”
We are also prone to be afraid of being afraid, and the conquering of fear produces exhilaration.” After such events as a bombing are over, “the contrast between the previous apprehension and the present relief and feeling of security promotes a self-confidence that is the very father and mother of courage.”
*Source: https://medium.com/invisible-illness/what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-stronger-b9bb1d430254
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