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How Plague Trained Us
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GEORGE:
Today: How Plague Trained Us
How plague trained Elizabethan culture—audiences included—
toward certain fears and reflexes…
and how COVID trained us in remarkably similar ways.
GEORGE:
Quick reminder: my Shakespeare can look back from the present day—films, scholarship, modern claims—
but he cannot predict the future. No prophecy.
WILL:
Memory, yes.
Foresight, no.
GEORGE:
Now, When I say “habits of mind,” I mean the reflexes that become automatic:
how you interpret a cough
how you feel about crowds
what you do with your hands
what you believe when you’re afraid
what you do to feel safe
who you trust, and how quickly you withdraw trust
WILL:
An epidemic trains a person the way war trains a person—
not by speeches, but by repeated fear.
GEORGE:
Exactly. Repetition makes instinct.
Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.