We are still not out of the pandemic. The humanity has to change its total outlook towards life, if they are to survive on this planet. All the manmade boundaries and faiths will perish. There will be a new dawn of humanity with the belief, “I am, because you are”, writes KHALID UMAR.
The Covid-19, aka Corona Virus, has been the only news of the year all through 2020 and well into 2021. So much has been said and written about it. The entire world was on total lockdown, and still continues to be in some countries. It was so unprecedented that nobody could ever have imagined such a time in life. The pandemic saw science charter its origin from Wuhan to the rest of the world. The conspiracy theorists talked, and still does, of the genetic engineering or bio-warfare. Lawyers called for China to compensate the world. Scientists clamoured for a vaccine. The world’s oil reservoirs shot up to the brim. All kinds of theories about the science behind the pandemic kept floating online.
The world needs wisdom (Picture courtesy: Getty Images)
That the virus has wreaked havoc the world over the hardest way, maiming human life, made me look at the pandemic from a philosophic view point.
We are very intelligent species. We have built telescopes to scan the limits of the universe and Large Hadron Collider to test different theories of particle physics, including measuring the properties of the Higgs boson. We have Electron microscopes to look into the heart of an atom. We know the structure of the DNA helical strand. We are re-wiring the synaptic connections of our brain. We live in a society which love intelligence and information. We marvel at the speed of our information processing. We value efficiency and results, where it seems that only the most intelligent will succeed. Perhaps we live in the most well informed age. The statistics, facts which a school going child has access to by the touch of his finger tips on a mobile phone screen is million times more than what Aristotle had. But that can’t make us wiser than the Greek philosopher.
Besides all the material resources of the information age, we live in the age of connectivity too. But despite all this knowledge, why has the human species not been happier?
What the world needs today is wisdom. It is more than just factual knowledge. Wisdom, is connected to an authentic sense of goodness. The word itself has connotations of goodness, humanity, and a sense of spirituality that inspire others to do good. It is not about any religion. To me, spirituality is everything that gives us a sense of transcendence in life. From this perspective, spirituality has to do with the practice of virtue or with the purpose of achieving a state of freedom or liberation. In any case, it has to do with reaching a higher degree of evolution.
To me spirituality means an appreciation of the mystery of existence and consciousness with reverence and gratitude. Appreciating life with awe and humility in regard to the place the human species occupy in the cosmos. I think that humanity needs a paradigm shift to understand the post Corona virus epidemic.
The unprecedented upheaval of pandemic occurred when the world’s stock and financial markets were predicted recession proof. The world welcomed the year 2020 with the usual fireworks and positivity. Within two months of the new year, the entire planet went into lockdown. There were no bunkers to hide, no sirens to announce Blitzkrieg, no horns to alert the lashing on of Tsunami, no movement of tectonic plates, no alien spaceships, no meteors to hit from the skies, no hurricanes to havoc, no nuclear holocaust. But factories got closed, traffic reduced while howling sirens of ambulances increased, ventilators started humming, guns went silent; the whole humanity was scared and faced an existential threat from Pope to the Pauper. However, the lockdown saw clearer skies, air pollution nose dived, nature’s other species started thriving, including bats and pangolins.
Now, while we are past the critical times of the pandemic, it’s time for us to consider making fundamental changes in our lifestyle and relationship with the other life forms on this planet. It’s not all about a protein molecule DNA covered by lipid changing genetic code of ocular, nasal or buccal mucosa and causing genetic mutation. It is what material science tells us.
But that is not the whole story. It’s about human greed to kill. Not sharing this planet with other species. It’s not simply a Cartesian world of cause and effect. “Cogito, ergo sum” [I think, therefore I am] is to be changed to “I am, because you are.” We, the humans, are the product of Mother Earth. We have to rethink our relationship with nature. This whole universe conspired to bring this blue planet and Homo Sapiens into existence. There are 100 million different species existing with us. It’s estimated that 10,000 to 100,000 are going extinct every year. One single species – human – is wholly responsible for this extinction. This may be the last warning from the Mother Nature to teach us a lesson on the bio-diversity of the planet. May we learn.
I believe the CoViD-19 outbreak will change the human awareness about this world. All the weapons of mass destruction and trillion dollar defence industry, all the pride in nuke arsenals, tanks and nuclear submarines licked dust. Every country scrambled for a lockdown. Nigeria banned entry of Europeans. From London to Paris to New York, city centres were deserted. Vatican to Kaaba and the God of mosques to synagogues all found themselves helpless. The recession proof markets tumbled. The leaders from Modi to Macron and Merkel to Trump were all literally trembling. Humans were fighting for toilet papers in the supermarkets. People were hoarding even if they knew food was not in shortage, neither the supply.
We are still not completely out of the pandemic. These are extraordinary times and the humanity has to change its total outlook towards life, if they are to survive on this planet. I am sure humanity will overcome this pandemic, but only with concerted efforts. All the manmade boundaries and faiths will perish. There will be a new dawn of humanity. The feeling of oneness. There will be a new BC age; from Before Christ to Before Corona.
KHALID UMAR is writer, lawyer and human rights activist based in the UK. He can be reached at misworx@gmail.com
Opinions expressed in this article are of the author’s and do not represent the policy of The Edition. The writers are solely responsible for any claim arising out of the contents of their articles.
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