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and really, it's not in general true that people are eager to panic at the drop of a hat. this is something that power holders like to say to justify authoritarian moves - to protect themselves - in crises. generally people go along rather blandly and tend to assume nothing is happening unless it's really in their face. there is good reason to be on edge and i think most of what we see of that is due to the capitalistic feeding frenzy mentality of competition - other people are buying toilet paper?! oh man i better buy some too. the reason could be anything.

and then there is a kind of weird excitement that people experience in disasters sometimes. partly it's a more or less rote reaction like getting the giggles at a funeral. but partly i think its the real ek-stase , not of disaster but of the suspension of the 'normal situation'.