Covid-19 Virus

We all know about Coronavirus and the havoc it has brought to the entire human race since its inception. We all know about the number of people it has infected and the death count till now. So, I will not go into the details of the story of coronavirus and its current effect. I hope you all are aware of everything through social media in the forms of news/memes/etc.

The coronavirus has hit the re-set button on nature. With most people back at their homes, nature has begun reclaiming its space across the world.

I will rather talk about the psychological change it has brought in all of us. Very few people are ready to talk about it.

Never in the history of the human race, we have been united as now. Almost every day there is news of the complete quarantine of the entire country (not even a city). We may be sharing memes and news of social media but deep down, we are fearful. This can be evident from the hoarding we are doing. But fear is not a bad thing. By evolution, we are wired to increase our survival probability.

One thing Coronavirus has brought in each one of us is the feeling of gratitude for our fellow species and our common Earth. We are now realizing that we have done enough. We have consumed enough. We have pursued enough pleasures. On a religious/spiritual level, coronavirus is nothing but havoc brought to us by the universe for our sins.

I would like to quote something from the movie Matrix which sums up everything.

I would like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you humans are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.

We exist on Earth, our host. Where we multiply indefinitely, carpeting the planet with grey soul-less cities. We cut down a football pitch size of forest every one second and the oceans are set to contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

See this video to feel how far we have come:

Nowhere in nature, a species kills another species for pleasure for food. We humans due to our intelligence have changed the meaning of evolution and survival.

Do you really think that coronavirus should spare us?

If you really want to understand who we are as a species, then you must watch this movie. I will suggest you watch this movie only when you have a strong heart.

The point I am trying to make is that if you all are feeling like me, then it’s the sacred time to reflect. Ask yourself only one question during this quarantine?

Do we really deserve Coronavirus because of our actions?

Most probably we will survive this virus due to our technology.

But the point is not just surviving. We are now at a critical point. If we are not learning anything during this tough time, then we should get back to making memes and zoom calls and social media and NetFlix and chill.

Illustration by Steve Cutts

The problem with capitalism is that it’s never enough. That’s why we are here eating live animals just for some Instagram video which will bring us millions of likes.

Even coronavirus follows the rules of evolution. Being a bridge between living and non-living, all it wants is to multiply its species as we do.

But coronavirus will never kill us like the way we kill other species for survival.

Do you really think that Oxford Dictionary deserves the word “Morality”?

One virus has brought the entire capitalism and our infectious behaviour to its knees and pollution grinding to a complete halt.

This clearly shows the system we have built for ourselves is not sustainable at all. Most of the things we do and consume in our life are not at all important. We buy it because we are being hallucinated.

In quarantine, as our panic and fear set in, our flimsy veil of comfort has fallen, revealing just how fragile we are when we rely on a system. An economic system that is not sustainable, but instead fuelled by the necessity to endlessly consume the animals, the trees, the oil, our own home. Where money is the oxygen on which the fire of global warming burns.

As Tyler Durden said in Fight Club:

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple of years, you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

Illustration by Steve Cutts

I can’t tell you what the right thing to do is. Only you know that.

Everyone’s way of life is different.

The potential for harmony, for balance, for rekindling a connection with nature, is within each one of us. If we simply have the courage to unplug from this archaic game and tune back into what is real.

I can suggest something on which we can ponder just during this quarantine times. My views can be personal also. But still, you can ponder.

Do we really need to eat live animals? Do we really need that 20 pairs of leather shoes in your wardrobes? Excess consumption means increased demand. Increased demand means more killing of animals for their leathers. It’s just that we don’t know the backstory of each item we consume in our daily life. That’s why I urge you to watch the movie I mentioned in the beginning. Do we really need to throw all our green waste in the dustbin when it could be easily dumped in a common ground of each locality where it can add more value? By throwing it in the dustbin, we are actually increasing global warming as it will increase the logistics and man-made recycling cost. Do we really need all that plastic for all our day to day things? Do we really need 20 mins of the shower? We waste one-third of the food worldwide. Do we really need all those chemical-based products in our life which are polluting oceans?

These points might look silly to you. But believe me, it’s all there is. The current crisis which we are facing is because of the summation of the above small from everyone.

We think that someone else has the responsibility of going good things for planet earth and our fellow species. And that someone else also thinks the same. That’s why we have a government which is busy in waging wars against each other. A majority of our taxes and resources are wasted in activities which have no real output.

We are about to reach Mars. We are about to discover the quantum reality. 2045 has been set as the year for Singularity. But still, a majority of us believes that cow urine can cure Coronavirus.

I would like to quote George Carlin speech here which sums up why we are a hypocrite species.

We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired off-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. Do you know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that someday in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminium cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!

We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet will be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”

Our whole education system teaches us the wrong thing from the beginning.

They teach children to save the planet instead of saving humans.

My point here is that change begins at home, especially wastage.

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

Illustration by Steve Cutts

Just Tune into Self Awareness.

Ask yourself, is this right? Is this how I want to be living? What would my grandchildren say about how we acted in the wake of a species faced with self-extinction?

Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come.

Take responsibility during these hours of reflection. Take back your responsibility. Your power. Make a plan.

In words of Yuval Noah Harari:

Humanity needs to make a choice. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity? If we choose disunity, this will not only prolong the crisis but will probably result in even worse catastrophes in the future. If we choose global solidarity, it will be a victory not only against the coronavirus but against all future epidemics and crises that might assail humankind in the 21st century.

So it’s time for a change. It’s time for us to encourage each other to tune out of this monopolistic game and carve our own path’s together.