Read the full article by Angie Eng at RAM’s New Times Magazine
It takes a crisis to uplift us from the abyss. When despair engulfs, human kindness emerges. Contrary to a Hobbesian world vision popularized by films like “Soylent Green” or “The Road,” humans in crises don’t always descend into chaos and violence. When we hit rock bottom, humanity often leans into philanthrōpia or kindness and benevolence.
In the United States, the high level of individual generosity for the arts ($25.2 billion in 2023) compensates for a government that chronically underfunds culture, forcing creative institutions into a constant state of crisis and potential closure.
In calamities like the Great Depression and World War II, humans demonstrated prosocial behaviors like cooperation, solidarity and empathy when witnessing great suffering. If you were around Manhattan in the days after 9/11 you may have experienced the transformation of New Yorkers from Doberman Pinschers to Labrador retrievers — gone were the growls. Shouts and shoves were temporarily replaced by a gentler side, always there but perhaps suppressed by the city’s cutthroat competition.