I never thought I’d say this and yet, here we are — the whole of Italy is now officially on lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The dominant feeling in the country is that of overwhelming uncertainty.
The lock-down paradox
The last time I experienced a similar decree taking force was during the Martial Law in Poland in 1981. Back then, it was the Polish communist government that drastically restricted normal life in an attempt to crush political opposition. Now, it’s the Italian government taking a bold decision to slow down the spread of the virus and to save lives.
The strange thing with the martial law back then — and the lock-down in Italy right now — is that, paradoxically, social distancing ended up bringing people closer together.
We are in this together
In extreme circumstances, we band together. We snap right back into our most primal modus operandi — we become tribal again.
