ABSTRACT
Of paramount importance to the major British response to the Covid19 global pandemic was a dramatic intensification of the pre-existing significance of the National Health Service as the prime carrier of the core cultural value of life itself. A theoretical model accounting for how emotions generate ‘values’ and belief-like constructs from otherwise ordinary ‘ideas’, in a process embracing notions of identity and even of destiny, parallels innovative popular responses that ritualised gratitude to self-sacrificing health-care workers. This applause from countless doorsteps, along with daily medical-scientific-political bulletins, and a distinctive address from the Queen, generated both a diffuse and highly focused ritualisation of British society, all at a time when major religious buildings were actually closed.
