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One would predict that the American people would experience a more concrete sense of collective trauma during this period of Covid, where we've watched 200,000+ people die tragically. Instead our response feels jaded and cold, with little regard for even the individual trauma
that has been experienced, the hundreds of thousands of people that have died due to negligence- whether that's the govt's negligence, their own, or both. Is this due to our cultural lack of reverence for the dead, and the ethic of individual responsibility?
(White) Americans have not historically held the weight of death well, as compared to other cultures that consider maintaining relationships to their ancestors as being essential for keeping a connection to themselves. What are the implications of this disconnect? It seems that
(White) Americans would rather embody a trauma bond to these events than try to form a relationship to these parts of themselves. What does it mean to "Never Forget" 9/11? Will we say the same about this year/ this pandemic in the future? This is meant to be an evocation of
..collective trauma, but doesn't bear any relationship to relating to each other, or processing this trauma through a relationship to the dead. Death is only further commodified.
