Pandemic Response, Cultural Anthropology, and “The Myth of the Caring Society”

Using anthropological insights into the nature of myths and the role they perform in shaping policy, I argue in this chapter that a narrative central to the moral identity of Western civilisation – “the myth of the caring society” – was crucial in fashioning the West’s pandemic response in 2020–22. The myth served both as a rallying cry for governments to foster social cohesion in the face of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and as a guidepost for individuals experiencing upheaval and uncertainty during the pandemic. When seen through the analytical lens of cultural anthropology, the pandemic control measures, as well as many grassroots practices, can be interpreted as rituals of a culture of care. Lockdowns and other unprecedented measures were introduced, as claimed by the powers that be, to prevent clearly avoidable deaths – which are a threat to the myth of the caring society – which had a disastrous impact on inequality. Fashioning a more caring society requires defetishising the myth and engaging in a critical interrogation of its relationship to policy.