Throughout this whole ordeal, I’ve been shocked by how much casual indifference there has by on the parts of so many to this crisis based on the belief that it “only” affects other people. Many have expressed the desire to continue about their daily lives or semester without interruption, even if that endangers the lives of many in their communities. The navel-gazing is not exclusive to Gen Z and millennials, as many on twitter and the in the media have suggest. Brueghel’s and Auden’s works are testaments that these attitudes have been common throughout history, whether it be eighty or five hundred years ago.