The virus didn’t come to correct us. It came to show us that we have to correct ourselves. However, it will not do our work for us. We have yet to accept that we can’t win the hide-and-seek we play with Covid, where each time contagion levels drop, we ease restrictions and go wild until the virus “sees” that we came out of our hideaways and returns more contagious and violent than before. Recklessly, we are playing with the lives of our loved ones, and not just the elderly and sick among us, but also with those of our children.
Just as jockeys whip their horses to make them run faster, nature whips us using Covid-19 to impel us to start working on our relations with each other. We have already made some progress, and most governments acknowledge that they cannot simply let people starve for lack of jobs. But these rescue packages are few and far between. Even worse, they miss out on the main problem: our indifference toward each other. If we were less careless and more caring for our fellow people, we could easily overcome any trials that nature sends us. If we don’t begin to implement programs that teach us how to care for one another, alongside the monetary aid, we will end up in social breakdown and bloodshed.
The simple truth that Covid is showing us is that all we think about is our own profit, and that if we can gain at someone else’s expense, so much the better. To our defense, we could argue that this is human nature, that nature has created us egoistic so we can’t be blamed for being so. While this is true, it is also true that nature does not leave its creations self-centered. It does the opposite, weaving them into a network of reciprocal connections, so the unity among them becomes their ultimate source of strength. If we insist on being egoistic, we will end up destroying one another; we will put each other to death in the most literal sense of the word. It’s just a matter of time, and not a long time from today.
Nothing is still in nature; everything evolves at its own pace toward the inexorable result of complete merger. Humanity, like all other natural elements, evolves in that direction, too. If we look at human societies throughout history, we can easily identify this trajectory. We moved from clans to villages, from villages to towns, from towns to countries until we finally became a global village.
However, we did that only on the social level. Emotionally, we are as separated now as we always have been. In fact, in many ways, we are more separated now than ever, since our individualism is constantly challenged by our forced interdependence. We cannot do anything for ourselves: We can’t make our own food, our own clothes, or our own homes. But we hate this fact even if we’re unaware of it; we want to feel as unique, special individuals. The clash between the two creates the myriad disruptions our society displays, from violence to substance abuse, to suicide, escapism of all sorts, fanaticism, mental and emotional disorders, and all the other signals of distress that people are sending.
But nature will not leave us alone; it will bring us ever closer to each other, which will make us feel ever farther from each other in our hearts. There are only two ways that this can end: a complete breakdown of society, or the joining of humanity with nature’s trajectory toward union. This is why it is imperative that governments and authorities set up educational programs that inform us about the direction of development and help us join it.
People don’t know why they feel more hateful, why they are more suspicious toward others, and why people are so mean to one another. If they knew, they could choose to unite and end their misery. But because they are oblivious to nature’s inexorable progress, they have no choice but to protect themselves and their families as best they can until it all falls to pieces, which will happen soon.
The only difference between humanity and the rest of reality is that the evolutionary process that happens instinctively in all other creatures must happen consciously in us. We are indeed the apex of creation, but we can conduct ourselves accordingly only if we understand creation. This is why humanity will get no allowances; we will have to learn how everything works, and we will have to pay our dues. But the quicker we learn, the lower will be the dues.
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