We are social creatures.
We have always gravitated towards bigger congregations – larger communities – stronger nations.
We are happy in crowds of fellow tribesmen, whether that be as commuters, or football supporters, or attacking or defending armies.
We share a common spirit, wherever we can, and we plug into that spirit to give us strength.
And the spirit can be all embracing.
Travellers are usually welcomed in distant cultures.
We find commonalities through the most fundamental human urges – need for shelter; enjoyment of food; humour evident in a myriad contexts despite no common tongue.
We laugh together, love together, live together…
Or at least we did.
The astonishing reaction to the novel coronavirus (or COVID 19) has shown how flimsy were the ties that bound us together. People fighting viciously over a packet of toilet paper – wanting to hoard toilet paper in the first place, in the knowledge that might deprive someone else in need – just shows how pathetic we really are.
How thin is the wall between civilisation and our selfish primordial urges.
After all, we are only ever a heartbeat away from abandoning all our socialisation – saying: “Get fucked!” to the rules – and returning to the state of nature which Thomas Hobbes warned us was nasty, brutish and short.
The totally psychopathic overreaction to novel coronavirus demonstrates to me that human beings have reached a turning point, from which I doubt we can ever entirely return.
We no longer want to be in crowds together – not without masks, and hand sanitiser and god-knows-what other social condoms to effectively insulate us from all human contact. This is truly the biggest change in human relations since the contraceptive pill (and that was the biggest change since the Dawn of Time).
What does this mean for our communal future?
What does this mean for any human activity that requires us to cluster together?
The fields of work, medicine, education, arts entertainment, sports entertainment, public transport, offline shopping, and especially intimacy – with either loved ones or strangers – are going to change.
I don’t mean to start a panic.
Obviously coronavirus eventually will go the way of SARS, Swine Flu and all other viral dodos, but maybe the damage is done. If we get another superbug in the next year or two, that will just confirm the collective paranoia currently sweeping the planet and normal service will never be restored.
Beyond the activities I’ve already mentioned that will also mean profound changes in world markets and the entire fiscal basis of the Western World. That’s not entirely a bad thing as I, for one, have long had some issues with that.
Thing is, if there are going to be changes that big – that profound – we all need a say in what they should be. And to inform our decision making, we need clear information.
The panic going on at the moment is not helping and we desperately need to stay calm and understand that we are in the process of making epoch defining decisions.
Be part of that decision making process.
Be very careful where you get your information and who you trust.
And FFS cover your mouth when you sneeze.
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