A lot has been said and a lot is being said about COVID-19. Experts and stakeholders from different fields- science, medicine, environment, economics, education etc. have been talking about the virus and how it’s going to impact our lives in near and far future. Most of these articles are scientific and data driven in nature while some are based on outcomes of very sophisticated forecasting tools. There are quite a few articles where social implications of COVID-19 have been discussed in great details.
It’s good to clarify right at the beginning that I am not a scientist, not a researcher or an analyst. Though, what people often forget is that we are humans to begin with. We are not the sole residents and owners of the Earth. All these write-ups and articles from these experts take many things for granted which is not the case at all.
This piece is an analysis of root-cause of our miserable situation. It’s not backed by data but it’s based on observations as a human being. I am convinced that we are no rulers of this planet but one of the ‘species’ which is residing it and I will be examining the situation from this perspective. The world is talking about Coronavirus as the only problem, rather it’s just one of them.
I would rather say that virus is not the problem itself. It is actually an outcome, a manifestation of our crazy and self-centred ways of living.
The strange animals called the Humans
Humans are residing on the top of Darwin’s model of evolution. Generally, all the animals and birds take care of the ecosystems in which they thrive. There might be some occasional damage to the ecosystem caused by some creatures but that is generally out of sudden anger or rather a result of direct efforts to survive. Once that trigger is gone, animals move back to their normalcy. Animals are generally full of sense of territory and once they get it, their mischief stops. Human beings violate both of these laws. Along with immediate instincts, human beings are governed by momentous insights and have the unique ability of pursuing their ‘dreams’, ‘ambitions’ and ‘goals’ no matter what.
In the process of creating wealth or safeguarding one’s interest, human beings can happily destroy the ecosystem in which they and many more creatures flourish. Also, like other animals, we fight till we claim our ‘territory’ or whatever the goal is but our notoriety increases drastically after we get what we want.
In short, our journey as humans is fuelled by fear, insecurity and discontent with whatever we have. Once we achieve what we hoped for, our desire is not shunned but it multiplies manyfold. The glass of desire is an absurd one. Once you start filling it, it doesn’t get filled; it starts getting bigger and bigger.
Our acts have always been detrimental to the entire balance of nature and many epidemics that we had, were actually results of we destroying habitats of others. As this article points out, destroyed habitats create perfect conditions for coronavirus and many more pandemics are about to begin in the future.
One of the greatest teachers from India, J. Krishnamurti would often say that ‘to exist is to exist in relationship.’ Without any doubt, we are the creatures on earth who exist in the worst possible way; exploiting everything rather than nurturing it. Over the centuries, we have cultivated toxic relationships with other co-occupants of this planet.
Our mistake is our misconception that we are individuals
Humans are highly ‘individuality’ driven. We have circled down our identities to narrow dots. Secondly, whatever falls out of our circle of identity, we identify it as competition or threat. In nature, life is woven so magically that there could be thousands and lacs of viruses but they won’t kill all of us. In the worst situation, they will kill a tiny fraction of our population. We started looking at everyone other than us as a threat. With the discovery of antibiotics, we started a war with microbes and in turn, affected ourselves by destroying the habitats of ‘good’ bacteria within ourselves. It took us many decades to realise this mistake and now, microbiome research is fostering to study causes and cures for many chronic diseases and disorders.
Yet, we are far from realising that fighting is not the key to exist.
Even now, with the Coronavirus outbreak, we are in fight mode (at this moment, it is absolutely necessary to control the pandemic) which is the only immediate solution. But, it is a ‘short’ term solution. The long term solution could appear only when we rethink about the way we deal with ‘life’ and its balance on Earth.
Flattening the curves
Everyone is talking about flattening the curve so that we can buy ourselves time to manage the situation better and reduce the number of casualties on the way. Flattening the Coronavirus curve is of course the need of time but to ensure our (and of the entire life on the Earth) healthy survival, we need to get serious about many other curves and should worry about flattening them instead.
- Population: We are already much more in numbers than we should be in the first place. No population control, no hopes.
- Pollution: Our rivers, air, soil, oceans everything is being polluted at a crazy pace. Ultimately, it’s all going to come back to us and hit us badly. We are already out of time; Ecosystem restoration should not be our just first priority but our first three priorities.
- Desires: We have already come far ahead of what we had expected from the life. We have done it at the cost of many people who are going through a living hell. As long as we operate from our sense of insecurity and comparison, we might possess all the wealth of the world but still, we would be wanting more and more.
We humans need to learn the art of being satisfied. But, individual and social satisfaction goes against the ‘growth’ driven society. Every effort will be made to make us feel insecure and incomplete. Entire machinery will be put at work of triggering our ‘fear’ so that we buy more, we hoard more and compare more. Once you get in the spiral, getting off is next to impossible. COVID-19 has momentarily stopped the spiral. Better be careful before you step into it again!
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