Some (admittedly speculative) responses...
Mike Palij wrote:
> (1) Why is so little about this pandemic included in our
> school curriculum, especially in history and biology courses,
>
Because, generally speaking, history is abysmally taught in schools
(even worse than math and science). What is taught as "history" is
mostly nationalist myth and morality tales (or, by way of political
overcorrection, anti-nationalist myth and morality tales) rather than
history, properly speaking. On top of that, the time of the flu pandemic
is overshadowed by World War I (although, I would bet that most high
school seniors -- and even most people generally -- couldn't tell you
one solid historical fact about World War I either).
> (2) Even though it had a tremendous impact on popular
> culture at the time, a social amnesia seems to have developed
> about it, with few people remembering or knowing about
> it (the AE episode shows several survivors who provide
> oral histories about their experience with the flu). One of the
> more obvious manifestations of fear of the flu was the widespread
> use of surgical masks in public to prevent transmission (as it
> would turn out, the masks were inadequate). How could
> something so horrific be forgotten?
>
Once something is (nearly) out of living human memory, it depends on
historical research and teaching and learning to be remembered. We live
in a culture that doesn't much value history (as contrasted with
patriot-building national myths). The "Spanish" flu doesn't play a role
in how American view themselves. It wasn't a "glorious triumph" (and it
is difficult to turn into one), and because it was an international
event it doesn't serve to differentiate Americans from everyone else.
From a narratological perspective, it is disaster without any obvious
evil-doer. Unlike the Holocaust, the enslavement of Africans, or the
decimation of the North American aboriginals ("Indian" is a pejorative
term not used in Canada much anymore, though I see that it is still
commonly used without offense in the US), the flu pandemic isn't a case
in which someone "did something" to someone else, and so it requires a
slightly more subtle historical framework to understand. Most people
don't have enough interest in the past to develop an appreciation for
happenings of this sort.
To be fair, over the centuries there have been a number of disease
epidemics that have killed massive numbers of people in short periods of
time and then gone away (i.e., evolved out into less virulent forms: a
number are described briefly in Jared Diamond's /Guns, Germs, and
Steel/), but are then totally forgotten a century or so afterwards
(except by a few historians). The "Spanish" flu (as it was known) was
still fairly well-known and spoken of when I was a kid (in the 1960s),
but as it slides out of human memory it will likely disappear like the
others. The "Black Death" of the 1340s is still remembered (at least by
name), though very few people seem to actually know much about it.
Estimates are variable, but it seems to have killed off close to half
the population of Europe (and untold millions outside of Europe too).
> Undoubtedly, some
> people will return after the floods have gone and will rebuild their
> homes in the flood plain, only to have them flooded again at some
> time in the not too distant future. Why?
>
>
Short-term thinking, unwillingness to accept alternatives to how one has
"always" lived, the (foolish) belief that "man's" destiny is to
"conquer" nature. To be fair, although there have been bad floods along
the Mississippi in the past, this recent one was regarded as a 500-year
flood. It would be silly to not rebuild on the basis of another flood
this bad coming along in the next 500 years. On that logic, no one
should build anything in California because of 500-year earthquakes. (On
the other hand, the climate is changing (no, really!), and what used to
be a 1-in-500 occurrence may now be a 1-in-5.)
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
"Part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his
or her views."
- Melissa Lane, in a /Guardian/ obituary for philosopher Peter Lipton
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