Post COVID-19, the condition would be worse in short term and would be better in long term. Though the focus at the moment is on the elephant in the room, which is undoubtedly Covid. The damage it has done is unprecedented. These are going to be long-lasting – at least for a few decades. There are strong reasons for it:
- Broken System: System was already broken and the Covid-19 pandemic only exposed it. The shit was covered under a gutter. Covid just opened the tap. The healthcare infrastructure was in shambles even in many rich countries, not to mention developing and poor countries. More than this, the hedonistic and consumerist cultures were cherry on top.
- 2) Lifestyle: This assumption that every resource on this planet is just for the consumption of human beings is full of insanity. What a crappy philosophy. The religions made this worse by teaching Humans are supreme and the rest are for their consumptions. So, focus more on after death than doing something meaningful while living here. God is there who will save us, we are here for the party only or passing time. There is no excuse for the cruelty of animals, trees, the ocean, forests, etc. Homan Sapiens brutally exploited them without any remorse (except few exceptions).
- Economic losses: There were hundreds of millions of citizens around the world including rich and poor countries who were living on the margins, now they have been pushed to the bottom. Even if the vaccine comes and every human on this planet is vaccinated, unemployment and poverty are only going to increase in the future. Once the cloud around Covid will be over we will see that media will be busy announcing every day which company and business house have gone bankrupt and people lost their livelihood. This time, it might be more devastating than the world war period. Countries/Societies will become ultra-conservative and xenophobia will be rising. Humans go wild when they become insecure. It’s prey-culture.
- Climate Change & Wars: At one end is climate change which is destroying millions of lives, on the other are Wars. We saw many wars for the benefit of a few individuals. Those wars led to the refugee crisis, hate, discrimination, injustice, and climate crisis. War-torn countries can’t fight against climate change. 92% of CO2 emission comes from Global North Countries (rich countries) only. But the ones who are at receiving ends are poor and developing countries. They face floods, droughts each year though their consumption of resources is many times lesser than richer countries. Humans have lost their conscience. More than Climate Crisis there is a Moral Crisis.
- The inequality and injustices: These things were existing in society for a very long, it’s just that people were in the rat race and never had time to fix the potholes. In search of incessant economic growth, the underlying issues were always there and we never looked into those. I don’t dream of a utopian world with no injustice and inequality, but I strongly believe this world could have been much better than it is today.
I hope all my words come untrue and we see a better world. But I think we didn’t look at grassroots problems even during this global pandemic. Human behavior is difficult to change – unless nature intervenes and forces brutally.
