Covid-19 — A spark for a Society 2.0?

These are strange times we are living in. Just a couple of months ago, no one, not even on their wildest dreams, would ever guessed that the planet would be almost completely self isolated at home. Not just one country or two countries, but pretty much the entire world. This is just insane.

Modern society has never seen a pandemic at such large scale. Sure we had some problems in recent years with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and swine flu H1N1 (a novel influenza A virus), but none of these had taken such proportions at a global scale. We have to go back to the period of 1918–1920 to see similar thing, when the misleading nicknamed “Spanish” flu (Influenza A) infected and killed millions around the globe.

This globalized, Internet and Social media driven society that we have built in the 2000′s seems to have come to some sort of dawn or crossroad. But that doesn′t necessarly mean it will vanish, at least not completely. But for sure something, or even many things will have to change, must change. For our one safety and survival.

We cannot continue to over and over again, fall in this spiral of fear, uncertainty and self reclusion. We, as a global population must rethink the core foundations of our society, what are how main needs and what we can safely exclude as acessory. We cannot commit the same mistakes again. When the next pandemic arrives, and be certain that this Covi-19 will not the last one we face, we must be much better prepared as a whole, as a species. These viruses are threats to all of us, as unique members of the very same human species. Any measures, either for prevention, remediation or mitigation should be done at global level, not per country in an isolated manner.

We cannot fall in the same situation where the disastrous health, feeding, and hygienic practices of one or two countries can jeopardise the entire world. This time, once again, it all started in China. It′s not the first, the second or the third time it happened, and certainly it will not be the last one unless we make drastic changes on our way of living. We all know the conditions of those wildlife and food markets. They basically heat everything that moves regardless of the provenience; wild or domestic, and if up to certain level we can understand the social and cultural aspects behind these practises, for sure we (the rest of the world) cannot be held hostage or serve as “guinea pigs” of those awful practises. Not again. The funny or not so funny thing about this, is that nations worldwide are now forced to buy (and fight for) medical and protective material from the same ones that triggered the button to this catastrophe. This is certainly an upside world in my perspective.

We all know that all around the globe entire forests and wildlife habitats are being devasted on a daily basis, altough the vast majority does absolutely nothing about it. Animals, plants, and yes, even tons of viruses and bacterias that for centuries or thousands of years remained separated from the rest of us, are now forced to become unwanted neighbours, forced to a coexistence of unexpected results, with a potentially wide range of nasty implications arising from these destructive behaviours. And i′m not even going to talk here about the uprising menace of the ancient microorganisms trapped in the permafrost, which is starting to melt due to our global warming careless practises.

Apart from the health problem, from which current society leaders were completely unable to prepare our nations (despite the so many warnings by cientists and reserchers over the years), there are clearly many other aspects of the modern socitey that were just not ready to face a situation that has been part of our evolution and history, and therefore predictable. We often overlook our basic needs in this “consumer society”. We buy the top of the edge technoloy gadgets that we don′t need for our life, but we do not know how to grow our own food or make our own bread. I can easily go online and buy a smart TV or a smartphone from the other corner of the planet, but if i want to buy some basic food i have none or only very few options, and in the best case scenarios i might have to wait a couple of weeks for the bags to get delivered at my door.

But i should not be afraid to go to the supermarket in the first place, neither i should feel the necessity of wearing a mask in order to return home safe, with fear of catching or transmitting a potential killing disease. We are all afraid now, and one of the reasons for that is because our governments and the society in general was, to say the least, a bit careless, since the signs were already there for quite some time.

Most countries, and just talking about the so called “developed countries” are not even self-suficient in terms of food. Governments cannot even guarantee the very basic basic need of food for their population and they rely on some other foreign country to deliver their fruits, their cereals, their vegetables, and so on… This is more than insane, this is madness. If we are in the middle of a desert where nothing grows it is undestandable but otherwise is just suicide.

Then we have the economics part. Unfortunately too may people will loose their jobs and there is no way around that, but at least to some extension a part of those losses will be related to the fact that their work was focused on producing the wrong things to start with. If they were producing stuff for basic human being needs they would be working even more than ever. The prevaling idea that we (as a country) should not produce something because someone does it cheaper must vanish from the minds of our society leaders. In Europe, some countries pay other countries to not produce certain goods, which is completely illogical, and everybody seems to be ok with that until we face situations like the ongoing pandemic and we realize we′re screwed.

If there is something that we can learn from the Chinese example, is how they are able to virtually produce anything, human rights and working conditions apart, of course. I just hope that once this all passes by we do not forget the recent past and immediately restart buying everything from there, at least not until we have official guarantees that their government will take real actions to prevent another health global crisis on the upcoming future.

But then again, another part of the upcoming changes, is that we might not need world leaders, or at least these kind of leaders anymore. Many companies already lost businesses because their clients were from another countries, and people on those or any other countries are now not concerned anymore in having superfluous products or services. When a pandemic time comes it forces people get back to the roots. The recent “toilet paper rush” is the ultimate and perhaps most ridiculous example of it. Can′t every single country produce its own toilet paper? Its own food? Its own face masks or gloves? It′s own ventilators and further medical supplies? Sure they can! They just need to define better strategies and priorities. Lets hope decision makers and society in general do not forget all these lessons once the horrible storm passes.

Apart from the economy, we probably also have an oldfashioned financial system that is not suitable anymore. Our money does not belong to us. It never really belonged to us. We work hard every single day, but at the end of the week or month, the hard earned income is put into some bank account, a dark place where we cannot use it or move it around as we would like and deserve. Instead they charge us more money to “keep or money safe”, or every time we need to make some payment or wire transfer, while they make millions just by investing our money as they want on a daily basis. When we need some loan from the banks, so we can either buy the things we don′t need, to start a small business, or to buy a home (the need for shelter, another basic one) they make us hostages for life, with their never ending interests and fees, and all this when the money they are “lending” is not even their own money, but probably the money from our neighbours, our family, our friends, etc… And when the economy halts what do central banks do? They print more money, a wortheless piece of paper that will only make our lives harder in the near future, as the inflation starts striking, reducing our buying power. Then we will ask again for a new loan, more spreads, more fees, more money for them, and the history will repeat itself. This has stop now!

Every single person on the planet could and should have some sort basic income, it is not fair that one men on one part of the planet earns millions for kicking a ball or for starring in some movie picture, while another men on the opposite side of the world is dying of starvation. We probably should also change the oldfashioned concept/approach of the “fiat” money that we have today, with all the inequalities it carries, and start moving towards some other , more evolved, fair concepts, like digital currencies. These can be generally available to everyone, and programatically engineered to not distinguish any gender or race. Without inflation. Without the need for any middle systems, without any fees, and really transfering the possession of the wealth assets to the ones that actually deserve it. The ones that owned it through their hard work; people, not banks. No more printing of worthless slavery paper money.

Governements must change too. If we decide that we still need them to a certain extension, then at least they must take properly care of us and the planet we all live. We spend our entire lives paying taxes for this and that, just because we are told to do it since we are born. They tell us that things should be one way or another just because, and we blindly accept it without questioning. But at the end they are not even capable of protecting our lives from a simple microscopic organism. Yet, we silently accept a tremendous waist of resources around the globe flowing to war material and weapons with potential to destroy mankind, at the same time that we watch big corporations destroying our own true home and health so a few individuals can get as many rich as they possible can, and all this with the consent and collusion of our governments. This has to change!

That′s why i think that a Society 2.0 needs to emerge from the ashes of Covid-19. A world where each nation is more independent from others, at least in what concerns to fulfil the basic needs of their citizens. Globalization is not evil but it cannot be done at all cost. We cannot ignore anymore the warning signs of our sick (and perhaps dying) planet; the only true winner of this pandemic crisis, now that pollution levels all over the world are slowing down. How ironic is that? Whe cannot go back to the same path anymore. The planet urge us to follow a different track, more conscientious, more green, more equal to every nation, man, women or child. More fair to every living being regardless of their species.

In a few months, when the darkness starts fading away, we should not instantly forget and carry on as before, instead we should look back at these hard times, as some sort of World Manifesto for a Society 2.0. We owe it to us, as the most advanced animal species in the planet, and we owe it to this beautiful place called Earth, home of so many different but equally species. The small pale blue dot in this endless sky, as Carl Sagan once referred to.