In this classic scene from Shawshank Redemption, Red struggles with the adjustment to life outside of prison. Behavior like this is common with people who have been imprisoned for long periods of time.

At about the one-minute mark, while working in a grocery store, Morgan’s character asks his supervisor for a restroom break. The manager pulls Red aside and reminds him he doesn’t have to keep asking every time he needs to relieve himself.

After 40 years in prison, I can understand the mindset a former prisoner might have—being told what to do in almost every aspect of his life. What I have trouble understanding in 2021 is the sense of learned helplessness I see in too many people one year after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Learned helplessness was first coined in the 1960s by the American psychologists Martin E.P. Seligman and Steven F. Maier. When they were graduate students, they researched animal behavior. When dogs received electrical shocks they couldn’t control, they learned that they later showed signs of anxiety and depression. The dogs who learned that they couldn’t escape the shock stopped trying in subsequent experiments. This occurred even when the dogs learned they could end the shocks by pressing a lever. Furthermore, the researchers learned that the dogs who received the uncontrollable shocks in the first experiment didn’t even try to escape shocks in a later one—even though all they needed to do, was jump a low barrier.

I see this with humans all around me now. As I drive around New York City, I see an entire population affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a sight to behold. 99.9% of people who are walking around outside alone, with no one around them, in masks. Many have even said, at least online, they will continue to do so, even after being fully vaccinated. What will it take to break people out of the fog they are under? People believe that nothing will end their suffering – or maybe they enjoy the conditions they live under.

The idea that even after a full vaccination, people will continue to wear masks, socially distance, and not be around loved ones is perplexing. What are people waiting for?

I read an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Lucy McBride titled; I’ve been yearning for an end to the pandemic. Now that it’s here, I’m a little afraid. She is a perfect example of learned helplessness.

She writes:

 

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