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The Human Lemming: a person who follows the will of others, especially in a mass movement, and heads straight into a situation or circumstance that is dangerous, stupid, or destructive: These lemmings that eat up conspiracy theories are so blinded by lies, they don’t even see the cliff they’re about to plummet over. …
Source www.dictionary.com/browse/lemming
If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, here’s a brief overview of what’s been occurring. A few news reports emerged about a shortage of fuel in a select few areas.The shortage was due (mainly) because of a delay due to lack of drivers NOT the lack of supplies. Reporters grabbed a hold of the story and steam rolled it out over all available platforms. Everyone hears and passes it on so the news of a shortage spreads like wildfire.
Armed with with this ‘alarming’ information the general public act like proper lemmings and proceed to annihilate all garage supplies as they wildly top up their cars to the max, whilst shouting about massive queues and dwindling supplies on social media. This anxious outcry causes more and more people to join the great fuel fight of 2021.
The media, perhaps realising the hysteria it has caused, declares that we MUST NOT panic – the fuel supplies are good there’s no shortage of fuel after all. Of course by this point, the panic buying is in full flow and no amount of reassurance from news readers like Phil McCann (I shit you not, he’s an atual BBC reporter) sent to report live from a forecourt somewhere in Doomsdayville. The queues had formed and the lemmings had descended on petrol stations in their droves.
I get it, to a certain degree, we all remember the great toilet roll shortage of 2020 caused by mass hysteria and acts of selfishness. I would have thought though that we might remember how ridiculous that all was. Ok so not having access to fuel is difficult for day to day life, I mean I live in a village where the bus only comes through a couple of times a week and even then it’s mostly one way and sometimes mysteriously absent. If it came to it most of us could definitely survive a couple of days without using the car right?
The abandoned forecourts coned off because the fuel has been sucked dry is insane. Some are saying it’s like a scene from Mad Max out there. I thought post apocalypse chic was a 2020 thing, and yet here we are deep into 2021 and still rocking it.
Why do humans (the superior species apparently) get manipulated so easily into behaving like this? The psychology behind panic buying is simple – a basic fear of the unknown causes you to take action and gain back control in an uncontrollable situation. So far so logical. Left alone I think most people could have heard the news that there were delays due to driver shortages. They likely could have surmised that the matter would be rectified in a few days. This then could have been rationalised and put down to a mild inconvenience. However, compound this situation with irresponsible news coverage and the hysteria of the social media commentator, and the end result sees a usually bright, logical and coherent human, be reduced to a panic buying moron.
If there wasn’t a fuel shortage before, there most certainly is one now as petrol stations across the country scrabble to get their supplies topped up. Their first customers likely to be the familiar faces queueing up again to top up their barely used tank. It’s crazy that as a race we can collectively be this stupid.
Anyway i’m off to arm my vehicle and go in search for some damn diesel. Wish me luck!!!
