A Post Covid-19 World
Before we barely had time to rub the sleep from our eyes waking into 2020, we found ourselves propelled, not only into a new year, but into a completely new era. We are now well and truly living in the age of Covid-19. With this viral outbreak / pandemic / global crisis comes a whole lot of uncertainty and so many questions that we barley have time to ask them, much less get answers. What is becoming clearer by the minute is that life, as we know it, may never be the same again. What will the world look like four weeks, 14 weeks, One year from today? Is it possible to go back to our normal lives after this virus ends?
Perhaps the most important question we need to be asking and discussing is, do we even want life to return to normal again at all? What good were we actually doing for ourselves, each other, the planet, Nature, humanity? It seems that Nature itself has given us a break from ourselves and ultimately, I am certain that we will see that this break (coming in the form of the “Corona virus”) is actually a healing of humanity that we could never have accomplished in any parliament, protest, conflict or movement. No superhero, celebrity, influencer or hashtag was going to save the planet and us from ourselves and the only thing else that could have brought about such a dramatic shift in our course would have ultimately been a third world war.
So maybe it’s time that we actually show some gratitude here and start looking at the Covid-19 not as a killer virus but a vaccine that will ultimately cleanse and cure all of us. All medicines, if you don’t know, contain a trace amount of poison and the Corona is exactly that. It is a medicine that has come to heal us. And we should embrace it and be thankful for it.
What we have is an opportunity to change the trajectory of our lives right now and this virus is facilitating this change for us. The evidence is already available. We see great improvements in where the virus has caused lockdown and we will see more in the coming weeks and months. Wildlife are returning to places they long ago abandoned or were extricated from, the air and water of major cities has improved dramatically and all because we are sitting still. The simple act of us sitting still has already made a dramatic difference. But we can’t sit still indefinitely.
The mining, cutting, clearing, drilling, fracking, producing, consuming, emitting, building, manufacturing, buying, selling, speculating and polluting has all but ceased and we are like observers watching the ocean floor from the porthole of a submarine. We watch passively and get an objective look at what life could be like if we stop all the grotesque, ceaseless pursuits for personal gain and satisfaction, at the expense of our planet and our society, we engage in. And I have a sneaking suspicion that we will actually love the “new us”.
However, the big question of “what will become of us?” clings like a barnacle on the hull of that submarine we all live in (not sure if it’s yellow, but let’s say, yes, it could be). What kind of life will we have? Will I have all or any of the things that make me happy, comfortable, successful? I am sure this is ultimately why we have begun to hoard toilet paper because at least, in this new desolate landscape of a planet where zombies roam the streets and the military controls our food parcel deliveries, I will have my quilted two-ply! And I will still feel human like I did in 2019.
So, what will the future look like? Well, I don’t have a crystal ball but if you will indulge me briefly I will outlay what the future should look like. Essentially, all of those resources which are now being freed up should be dedicated to education. And I am not speaking of traditional education as we know it but rather, a new paradigm of education, a new definition. What we need to educate all of humanity on is our own interdependence and the purpose of our existence as being a necessary functioning element within Nature.
Nature has given us this nudge… let’s call it a shove. Do we fight back and say, “NO, we want all the crap we had before!”? Am I going to continue to refuse to move in the direction that Nature is guiding us because, “I love pouring petrol into the belly of my oversized SUV, spewing fumes all over creation, working 12 hour shifts at my mindless job. I love plastic straws, deep discounts and junk food and I don’t care that its mere existence here is the result of an exploitation of the people and the planet we live on.”? I, for one have more faith in people place focus on the truly important things in life again like family, relationships, our children, our environment and our own education.
Ultimately our combined anxiety seems to mostly be centered around the uncertainty of our future. This virus is not out of control, we are. And we see the positive results of this pandemic are showing themselves in form of the return of Nature’s balance to places where humanity had all but eradicated Nature with our human endeavors. We are beginning to recognize through this mandatory “break” that there was a great evil done in the past. And this realization is part of the good that is starting to emerge. However, what we need now is to recognize and define an approach to how to carry the “good” forward. We must ask one another, and we must decide and agree together upon the shape and system of our future from.
We know that we can change society only through education. However, we now only need an education of values and not of economics. Economics is only important for our basic survival, but oh, how economics has corrupted our balance with Nature in pursuit of individual gain. Nature is whole, and we are not acting in harmony with that holistic system. We are against that connected, integral system. Like a virus attacking the very body that hosts it until it is weak or dead.
We must come back into balance and the future society must be one where we have care and concern for each individual in it. Where we only take what we need individually and leave the rest for Nature. Where we limit ourselves and our pursuits to those that serve the entirety of the system and not just for me alone. We need to build a new system that shows gratitude for that which we have and disregards the desire for more. We must listen, respond and act in accordance with Nature.
This is the new world that we must build together as we emerge from our global slumber. We have been given a real opportunity here. And we mustn’t squander it. Ask any child and they will tell you. It doesn’t have to be scary. Let our children build this future for us. Let them guide us and they will. And let us come back to the foundations of happiness; friends, family, connection. Release us from our hollow pursuits and let us build something beautiful, a new system that is in harmony with the system that we are already in. If we agree, if we are united, we will all succeed in this together.
~ Todd Kramer
