Something that should become apparent to humanity in the face of the coronavirus is how interconnected we human beings have become and how vulnerable we are in the face of global problems.
A virus which began in Wuhan province China, has now reached every continent on the globe and has affected many countries along with it. Italy is now a country on effective lock down, after the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, ordered Italian’s to stay at home and only made allowance for essential travel.
Many other countries are considering similar drastic actions, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stating, the UK will implement similar measures to the Italian’s “at the right time.”
Despite these efforts however the virus continues to grow as scientists desperately seek a vaccine. At the same time, the stock market plummets, leaving the financial world in a state of panic, so much so that Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank, warned that a financial crisis similar to 2008 could be on its way because of the coronavirus.
As the seriousness of this virus grows, it should force us to take stock of the situation and to truly analyze what is happening in the world. A correct diagnosis is half the cure.
Living in a Mutually Dependent World
Defeating the coronavirus is forcing the world to act in a cooperative way to try and combat it, and indeed, only a coordinated response by all countries can truly bring this pandemic under control.
As we have already witnessed, a problem emanating in China has quickly become a catastrophe in Italy. The night is well and truly young and many other countries may soon find themselves in an emergency state.
Indeed, the virus is even forcing old enemies to cooperate, as Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon recently told the Jerusalem Post “We are in contact with the Palestinian Authority because the virus has no borders, and doesn’t know how to distinguish between ethnic groups, religions or nations.” How right Kahlon is.
We witnessed a similar scenario in 2008, when a global financial crisis, almost brought the entire global economy to a collapse. That crisis, like the coronavirus crisis, taught us how connected we all are. It started in the USA, yet it nearly took down the entire global financial system with it. It was the only multilateral action that saved the day in face of that problem. Once again cooperation was key to saving the day.
If we are to truly tackle the coronavirus and many other problems that pose a threat to us, like the environmental crisis we face, we must realize that the old methods of behavior employed in the world that did not take this interconnection into account, are now redundant and destined to lead us to far greater problems.
What Needs to Change?
Up until the present, we have built societies based on self-interest and egocentric pursuits, which are simply incompatible with the new reality we now find ourselves in.
The result of this behavior are crises of the like we are currently witnessing, which are bringing entire countries to a halt.
Unfortunately we will continue suffering problems such as the coronavirus and potentially much worse ones until we start to adopt a different attitude towards each other, which must be reflected in all areas of life. Our governance, education, media, social systems, employment, and so on, must now all be conducted with our interconnectedness at the forefront.
Humanity will continue to experience problems such as the coronavirus and potentially much worse, until we begin to radically improve our attitude towards our fellow human beings.
If we take such measures, then this will automatically begin to resolve this problem as well as many others. Even by starting this process, we will rapidly begin to witness positive results as a consequence.
I hope that this new reality will finally dawn on us and we will make the necessary changes that will bring about a new era of abundance for all of mankind. One that is virus free.
