At a time when humanity, with its mind-boggling achievements in various fields, is marching ahead sort of a juggernaut, trampling all other creatures and destroying the mother earth, there appeared a pathogen, invisible and undetected. And, the seemingly doomsday pathogen brought the whole humanity to its knees and pushed it into a dreadful huddle.
It made us stop bragging about AI and therefore the Internet of Things for a short time and begin practicing the way to wash our hands properly. It made us put aside our gregariousness and made us to take care of social distance. It stopped us from manifesting our confidence through a firm handshake and made us stay clueless on the way to greet the opposite person. It forced us to not ignore coughs and sneezes as mere natural reflexes and dread them instead.
However, if you conclude that only bad things are happening thanks to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, you're mistaken. The relentless spread of the pandemic has caused an unintended climate benefit through reduced pollution, which led to cleaner air and water. Not only this, it even made many of us shun the consumption of meat and switch vegetarians, a minimum of temporarily. And, most significantly , humanity realized the unpleasant incontrovertible fact that its seeming invincibility is merely an illusion and it continues to be susceptible to various unforeseen threats.
The virus outbreak even created many odd situations. Normally, nations, once they observe the arrival of a dangerous enemy, leave all guns blazing to neutralize it. But now, they're forcing all their citizens to cover behind their four walls and await the invisible enemy to pass. If you sit ahead of your TV most of the time, you're branded as a idler . But now, they need you to take a seat ahead of your TV for God's sake to save lots of humanity. and therefore the globe-trotting businessmen and professionals, who are normally searched in awe, are now being suspected and treated with contempt.
As the deadly pathogen keeps spreading sort of a wildfire, it's likely to cause some radical changes within the way we perceive things and lead our lives. Therefore, it's timely to reflect on the likely changes the dreadful pandemic will force upon the planet .
De-globalization: Globalization, which brought prosperity to some sections of the society, has been under the scanner within the developed world for shifting manufacturing facilities to the Third World and allowing the Islamists to invade Europe within the garb of asylum seekers. It also created a tribe of globe-trotting businessmen and professionals, who consider themselves as global citizens. Now, an equivalent people are carrying the virus everywhere the planet with their irresponsible behavior. Their behavior is breeding more contempt among the standard people towards globalization, which facilitated the movement of not only men, material and money but also the terrible virus across national boundaries. In many parts of the planet , the airports are closed and therefore the people that fly across national boundaries are asked to self-isolate themselves. The closed airports, quarantine centers, and isolation wards could convince be the bottom zero of globalization. The growing opposition to globalization may finally find yourself strengthening the hands of right-wing nationalists, who are likely to create tall walls alongside their borders.
Socialism: it's the capitalism that paved the way for globalization, which led to a gargantuan increase in wealth. All the new-found wealth, however, got concentrated within the hands of a couple of ultra-rich individuals. Nevertheless, the outbreak of coronavirus is forcing governments everywhere the planet to resort to socialistic measures. they're extending many benefits to people, especially the vulnerable, within the sort of cash transfers to catch up on the work losses. Nevertheless, the upsurge of socialism shouldn't be mistaken with a revival of communism. Because, the communism, with its violent history, became so unpopular that folks might not be willing to submit themselves to their totalitarianism once more . In fact, the entire lack of transparency and conspiratorial secrecy maintained by China's communist regime in handling the virus outbreak is liable for this current crisis.
Strong Governments: For a long time, economists and social thinkers emphasized on minimum government, restricting its activities to only some fields such as defense and policing. The virus outbreak, which requires a herculean effort to contain, once again brought the importance of government machinery to the fore. Only a strong government with its institutions and men in uniform can deal with a crisis of this magnitude. Now, the people, communities, and organizations are seeking government support to sail through the crisis. Even the big corporates, who advocate laissez-faire during normal times, are demanding bailouts and stimulus packages to kickstart the slowing economy.
Changing Dynamics of Crisis Management: Normally, after every crisis - whether it is a terror attack or an economic crisis - the state heads reassure their citizens not to panic and urge them to show resilience by getting on with their usual lives. But now, we are observing a completely different phenomenon where the state heads across the world are resorting to scaremongering to force people to stay indoors. The reaction of the people to coronavirus threat has so far been undisciplined. If people don't mend their way, governments may even resort to the use of high-handed methods to bring the situation under control.
Mercy Towards Animals: After the outbreak of coronavirus, the animal rights organization, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), made a tweet showing how the term 'coronavirus' turned out to be an anagram for 'carnivorous', highlighting the fact that the pathogen has its origins in meat markets. The relentless proliferation of non-vegetarianism, in addition to causing excruciating pain and suffering to animals, also turned the slaughterhouses and meat markets into the sources of various pathogens. Most of the viruses that afflicted humankind till now have animal origins, and therefore people must reform their food habits if they want to contain virus outbreaks in the future.
End of Individualism: The twenty-first century made unlimited freedom and individualism popular, which gave greed and selfishness the undue legitimacy. But the unceasing virus outbreaks are forcing people to set aside their individualism and withdraw into the protective cocoon of collectivism by sacrificing their rights and freedoms. The aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak made people hyper-vigilant about their neighborhood and the level of suspicion towards their fellow citizens skyrocketed. The onus of restoring trust is on everyone by behaving in a socially responsible manner.
Conclusion: It is, however, difficult to accurately predict the changes the dreadful pathogen may bring about. If it turns out to be a dreadful crisis with relentless spread and mounting mortalities, it may even end up spreading hatred towards some nationalities and some sections of the society. It already made many people detest the Chinese. It may even make people detest frequent flyers and the people who frequently go on binge partying and compulsive shopping. It may make social distancing permanent, and it may even make the society love those people who manifest introverted nature. So, let's wait and watch how the world is going to emerge out of the pandemic.
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