Ten ways 2020 will change human society for the better..

Most humans have a seven-stage response to any catastrophe – 1. Disbelief ( It’s just a hype !) ; 2. Denial ( (It won’t affect my life ! ) ; 3. Panic (God, this seems real !) ; 4. Blame ( It’s their fault !) ; 5. Prayer (Pls help me and mine !) ; 6. Self-centered Gratitude ( Phew, it has passed !) ; 7. Arrogance (I am invincible !).

I said ‘most humans’. Of course there are others. A healthcare worker for instance, who finishes a 40-hour shift and breaks down when she cannot find food in a supermarket because the above people were raiding the stores and hoarding their refrigerators while she was trying to save lives.

Mr. Einstein had remarked that human stupidity is infinite . He should have included human selfishness too. 

On Day#5 of confinement at home as per the Government’s timely directive in my country, I look at the deserted world outside my window & am reminded of some Hollywood disaster movie. One where the world is standing intact, but the humans have vanished. But I know that the humans are lurking out there. Behind closed doors and dark curtains. Oscillating between stages 3, 4 & 5. Waiting for Stage 7. But something makes me feel that Stage 7 won’t come. Not this time around.

More I reflect on the situation, I am forced to believe that this was perhaps a disaster waiting to happen. Unscientific as it might sound, but Mother nature has a way of balancing her creation from time to time. Like any mother. Who needs to step in and chide an errant child who is losing his way. The child learns the lesson and mends his ways. His life thereafter is altered for the better. For good.

2020 is likely to go down in history books as that juncture for the errant child called mankind. The year where someone boxed our ears and brought us back.

The first twenty years of the new millennium saw a dizzying march of mankind, a progress that would put to shame man’s evolution throughout the timeline of his existence. Simply for the sheer speed at which we changed the way we chose to live. And while mankind had always swayed between the individual & the collective, the 21st century saw humans embrace a scary brand of Super-individualism on steroids. The season of the amplified ‘ME’ – I, the center of the universe ! In the past 20 years, we grew more connected, yet more lonely than ever before. In the past 20 years, geographical borders became more & more irrelevant and yet each of us became more and more isolated. These 20 years saw the rise & rise of pseudo-altruism , muscular nationalism & an effortless new brand of inexpensive empathy, flashed through the convenient clicks of social media. It was the age of self-aggrandization, the summer of convoluted capitalism & an avalanche of consumerism. The Instagram life, carefully designed like a photo album, prioritized in the descending order of ‘Likes’. A life in denial of the big picture , with utter disregard for the planet. A life devoid of inter-dependence. A life feeding the ego and starving the soul, where most of us lost ourselves on the moors of more, chasing an illusion called the perfect life on an island, from where we would applaud inhabitants of other islands as long as they were applauding us. But the unspoken rule was that if there was a fire on any of the islands, the individuals on all other islands would be allowed to promptly turn their faces away.

300,000 infected people , 13000 deaths and counting – man’s latest existential threat is not some alien with super powers. It is a mere microbe. A virus that has brought us to our knees, halted our march and kicked us in the gut. Only time will tell when this battle will finally end , and in the favor of man ( I shudder to even imagine the other alternative). Hopefully soon. Like his enormous capacity for selfishness, man also has infinite reservoirs of intelligence, empathy and survival skills. Good, talented souls are working all over the world to help us win this race against time.

But whenever this ordeal ends, human society will not be the same anymore. A common joy, no matter how large, can never unite mankind. A common crisis can. And this united species of Sapiens will carry several lessons from this disaster. Today, mid-way through the battle, I can think of the following ten. Maybe there will be some more –

• Life is not about liberating ourselves in selfishness or subjugating ourselves to a collective. Life is about interdependence. Each of us has a piece to complete in that larger canvas. We are all connected in the final analysis . We are one.
• The essence of life is not accumulating trophies of accomplishments, but about finding and leaving behind a trail of service.
• Human life is bigger than the ‘Big Me’. It is about surrender & sacrifice.
• Human beings are indeed outwardly shallow during good times . But we are also inwardly amazing during tough times . We all are. We just need to reach inside and touch it.
• To live is not just to think rationally. To live is also to feel and to ‘be’ . That’s why we call ourselves ‘beings’.
• Freedom & abundance are great. They also spoil us. Captivity halts & limits us from outside, but expands us within . Into the depth of our souls. To find ourselves back.
• Life is not some conquest to be executed. It is a responsibility to be taken. A commitment to be made, and kept. A moral adventure to be pursued.
• Life is not a zero-sum game where one victory should equal one defeat. Life is winning over the self & not over others . About not letting others lose.
• Human society will rebuild itself after this catastrophe like it always does. But this restoration will not be about technological infrastructure and human convenience. It will be the restoration of community, the re-establishment of trust and reinstatement of faith.
• On the surface, we are designed in diversity – colors, religions, nations. At our core, we are the same. We all have the same regrets , fears, insecurities and dreams. And we all get better at life as we go along. With each such catastrophe. Where nature takes us through our individual journeys and slowly makes us shed our individuality. And reminds us that it is a beautiful world & a beautiful life. That – We are all in this together !

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(My Sunday Blog Post, 22/03/20)

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