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"One thing I've learned in life is, money can be a very lonely companion. Kindness matters most."
Those are words of advice from 96-year-old Joy Wheatley, who has witnessed multiple crises, including World War II and the Great Depression — events that were devastating, but united many people against a single challenge.
She said, alongside the poverty and desperation, were acts of generosity as the entire population came together.
"I went to school with boys who didn't have shoes," she said.
"But we were all in it together, and there was no stigma to being poor."
Then came World War II.
"Drastic measures came in about rationing and other things overnight," she said.
"Suddenly [people in authority] had the ability to send people to work where they'd decided they were most useful.
"I think that was the swiftest reaction to the change of our way of life."
For Joy, the coronavirus pandemic does not feel new, only different.
And she can sum up her advice to others facing a global crisis in three words: "Resilience, hope, kindness."
It is a joyful perspective that historians say is reflective of the way governments have long responded to the most significant crises.
They say history tells us positivity is key to our ability to successfully overcome the social and economic challenges coronavirus brings.
'We need propaganda'
"The most terrible thing was the despair into which people fell."
According to Professor Frank Bongiorno from the Australian National University School of History, Thucydides's description of the plague that struck Athens in 430BC bears a strong resemblance to the current pandemic — not because COVID-19 is as deadly, but in the way people worked to help each other.
Since the beginning of coronavirus's impact on Australia, the country's leaders have made the effort to inject positive messaging into their press conferences and updates.
Amid the uncertainty, there have been constant reminders of how, if we work together, we can overcome this, flatten the curve.
That positivity is a vital component of leaders' responses, according to Professor Bongiorno.
He said the optimism shown by Joy Wheatley was reminiscent of the kind of morale-boosting advertising she would have been exposed to during WWII.
"Governments knew that the morale of society more generally could win or lose a war," he said.
"One of the reasons Germany lost the war was that it couldn't feed itself, and that collapse of home front morale was critical because it affected the troops as well — they knew that their families were back in Berlin starving."
Professor Buongiorno said the recent panic-buying and abuse aimed at healthcare workers in hospitals and pharmacies was not simply poor behaviour, but a sign that some were struggling to trust the overarching system of governance.
"There was rationing in World War II and when word got out that clothing was about to be rationed, people just went into the department stores and went berserk," he said.
"It's really important that governments provide a sense they know what's going on and that they do know how to manage a critical shortage of something like medical supplies, so that people's generosity is cultivated."
Whether it is clapping for healthcare workers or Spotify promoting Ben Lee's We're All in This Together, Professor Bongiorno said rally cries mattered.
"There's been effectively a kind of science on this — government advertising campaigns are a part of that," he said.
"They're not just about telling people they need to wash their hands, they're about telling people things are under control, and we'll get through it.
"It is effectively propaganda and we need propaganda in situations like this, we just usually call it government advertising."
But he said strict penalties imposed by NSW Police in recent weeks had been "hugely damaging" to this effort.
"The imposition of fines for people sitting on park benches has been incredibly damaging, because it's undermined a sense of government authority, of being able to prioritise and follow the science," he said.
"You don't want these stories circulating. You want to know that the rules they're enforcing make sense or you'll get all sorts of problems, like evasion of the rules."
Acts of kindness, then and now
Where Joy Wheatley witnessed a high employment rate in the 1940s, in 2020, we are seeing the opposite.
Today, the country's service industry is much larger than at any other time in history, which has led to huge job losses and a radical transformation of Australian life.
Even 20 years ago, Australia's cafe culture and restaurant industry was not nearly as booming as it was two months ago, Professor Bongiorno said.
"In some ways I can see why our economy is so vulnerable now, because of that," he said.
With cafes and restaurants closed, the home has now become the primary source of both entertainment and productivity.
Whereas during the Great Depression people would have turned to extended family if they were evicted or lost work, families are now forced to stay connected via technology.
But the result of this physical disconnection has seen the emergence of smaller acts of kindness that are reminiscent of the war effort — like when people were encouraged to drink less beer to support sailors.
Organising free coffees for healthcare workers echoes the campaign to "make do and mend" instead of buying new clothes, Professor Bongiorno said.
Economically, we are worlds apart, but essentially, little has changed.
"We're having to be weaned off the lifestyle to which we've become accustomed," Professor Bongiorno said.
And those smaller acts of solidarity will see people through, Mrs Wheatley said.
"I don't like texts and emails very much because they're so impersonal — when you ring someone up and have a chat with them, it's amazing how it lifts their spirits," she said.
Catastrophe forces change, some for the better
When the plague struck Athens in 430BC, many chose not to isolate but headed out to care for the sick and fell ill themselves.
They felt there was honour in this caring role, and therefore honour in contracting plague.
Professor Bongiorno said the description of this event shared some characteristics with the current pandemic, including in how healthcare has taken on a new significance.
And with the changes to Centrelink payments, he said an ideological shift had likely taken place in how Australians viewed welfare.
World War I forced a radical transformation of the workforce as able-bodied men headed overseas to join conflict.
Those who were left, many of them women, had no choice but to step up and take on roles formerly considered beyond their capabilities.
"Far from people staying at home, they were being drawn out," he said.
"You didn't have the sense of economic insecurity that people are experiencing now — people had lots and lots of money but nothing to spend it on."
Society began to view women differently, just as certain shifts are happening now. But the real question is: After COVID-19, which changes will last?
Greater support for jobseekers, hospitality workers and artists, and higher wages for those on the frontlines of healthcare, could become long-lasting changes, in the way conflict once transformed society's views about women in the workforce.
"What people are asking now is, what comes after COVID-19?" Professor Bongiorno said.
"There's a sense that the pandemic has exposed all sorts of gaps in policy
"A whole series of things that people have been advocating for years but got nowhere, are they going to become possible after this?"
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Topics: covid-19, health, history, world-war-2, act, australia, canberra-2600
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