Because of the COVID-19 virus, the world has lost over $6,000,000,000,000.00 collectively in the past month, has had over 70,000 workers file for unemployment in the United States alone, and most importantly, has caused 349,187 infections and 15,297 deaths globally. Daunting numbers to say the least. The sheer gravity of this circumstance we are,involuntarily placed in is incredible and unforeseen. Yet, uncertainty begs nothing but inquiries and questions in an attempt to make sense of the unknown, and the question at the forefront of my mind is simple. Just how much, or how little, does it take to break the world?

Alberto Pizzoli / AFP – Getty Images

Certainly, placing the world in unfamiliar territory is not cause enough for its destruction, it has been in uncertainty before. One could argue that the world is perpetually in uncertainty and thrives in unpredictability. The human race prides itself as the peak of concurrent evolution, as we use our minds to transform our environment. As every other animal lives under the mercy of nature, we morph the world to our own liking. And this ability to transcend our physical limitations has given us unquestioned dominance over all things. Our pride has given us the confidence to fight against everything that would stand in our way.

But what happens if the world fights back?

Well, there are terrible, terrible consequences.

A view of Taal Volcano from Tagaytay, Batangas as it spew thick clouds of ash on January 13, 2020. Photo by Alecs Ongcal/Rappler

Brook Mitchell/Getty Images (Left) | Alecs Ongcal/Rappler (Right)

In this year alone we are consequently reminded of mother nature’s strength. The massive wildfires in Australia and California and the eruption of the Taal Volcano are evidence alone of our helplessness. Too often, we conflate ourselves as gods, that we forget our own weaknesses. Too often, we live our lives blind to society’s ills, that our ignorance has left festering cracks in society’s foundations.

These cracks only delay breaking for so long, until a situation arises that urges an overhaul in society’s processes.

It would definitely seem as if the COVID-19 virus are making a mockery out of us, and we, scientists, politicians, businessmen, students, teachers, drivers, parents, children, men, and women alike, are left blindly wading our way onward in time, never having a firm grasp of the future.

The crashing of the stock markets only shows us one facet of the near-omnipresent reaches of this pandemic. The economy is, largely, socially-based, determined upon the collective perception of society as it is today, Even money, the paper bills we work countless of hours for, without the assigned value it was imbued with, has no real bearing. But any high school student who’s had an Economics class would know that. However, it does raise an alarming concern. How far does this concept go? How deep have we imbued the imagination of value into our lives?

A few months into the mass global spreading of the virus, and the major cities of the world have gone into community-wide quarantines, or in the most severe cases, military lockdowns. These lockdowns and quarantines have affected the lives of everyone involved, quite drastically, from slightly altering the courses of our own daily routines to completely overturning our lives.

Supply and demand dictate what is valuable and what is not. In times wherein death is as ominous as now, we grow to realize that those things that once had tremendous amounts of value are useless. Businesses, those that have founded themselves in the assumption of a decadent society, are struggling as humanity relapses into modes of survival.

Even the education system and its establishments are left bewildered, as the social given of face-to-face interaction is no more. Schools and universities are left with no other choice but to suspend classes and think of their own ways to effectively pursue learning.

Yet humanity, for better or for worse, always finds a way. In times wherein we, as a species, have been threatened, we have always survived, that’s why we’ve made it this far. If we find a way to leave our quarrels behind us, enact sensible, informed, and rational leadership, and learn to help one another in these times of strife, only then could we become prideful once again through the lens of our unity, not our imagined superiority.

How fragile is the world?

Exactly as fragile as we make it out to be.