At a time when humanity, with its amazing achievements in various fields, is advancing like a monster, trampling all other creatures and destroying mother earth, a pathogen appeared, invisible and undetected. And, the seemingly apocalyptic pathogen brought all of humanity to its knees and shoved it into a hideous group.
It made us stop bragging about artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things for a while and start practicing how to wash our hands properly. It made us put aside our gregariousness and forced us to maintain social distance. It prevented us from expressing our confidence through a firm handshake and made us have no idea how to greet the other person. It forced us not to ignore coughs and sneezes as mere natural reflexes and instead fear them.
However, if you conclude that only bad things are happening due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, you are wrong. The relentless spread of the pandemic has brought unwanted climate benefit through reduced pollution, leading to cleaner air and water. Not only this, it even caused many people to avoid meat consumption and become vegetarian, at least temporarily. And more importantly, humanity realized the unpleasant fact that its apparent invincibility is just wishful thinking and it remains vulnerable to various unforeseen threats.
The virus outbreak even created many strange situations. Normally, nations, when they observe the arrival of a dangerous enemy, do everything possible to neutralize it. But now, they are forcing all their citizens to hide behind their four walls and wait for the invisible enemy to pass. If you sit in front of your television most of the time, you are classified as a television addict. But now, they want you to sit in front of your TV for the love of God to save humanity. And now globe-trotting businessmen and professionals are suspected and treated with contempt, usually admired in awe.
As the deadly pathogen continues to spread like wildfire, it is likely to cause some radical changes in the way we perceive things and lead our lives. Therefore, it is timely to reflect on the likely changes that the terrible pandemic will impose on the world.
Deglobalization: Globalization, which brought prosperity to some sectors of society, has been under scanner in the developed world for moving manufacturing facilities to the third world and allowing Islamists to invade Europe under the guise of asylum seekers. He also created a tribe of globetrotting entrepreneurs and professionals, who consider themselves citizens of the world. Now, the same people carry the virus around the world with their irresponsible behavior. His behavior is generating more contempt among ordinary people towards globalization, which facilitated the movement not only of men, material and money, but also of the terrible virus across national borders. In many parts of the world, airports are closed and people crossing national borders are asked to isolate themselves. Closed airports, quarantine centers and isolation rooms may well become ground zero of globalization. Growing opposition to globalization may eventually end up strengthening the hands of right-wing nationalists, who will likely build high walls along their borders.
Socialism: It is capitalism that paved the way for globalization, which led to a gigantic increase in wealth. However, all the newly discovered wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy individuals. However, the coronavirus outbreak is forcing governments around the world to resort to socialist measures. They are extending many benefits to people, especially the vulnerable, in the form of cash transfers to make up for job losses. However, the rise of socialism should not be confused with a rebirth of communism. Because communism, with its violent history, has become so unpopular that people may not be willing to submit to its totalitarianism once again. In fact, the complete lack of transparency and conspiratorial secrecy kept by China’s communist regime in dealing with the virus outbreak is responsible for this current crisis.
Strong Governments: For a long time, economists and social thinkers emphasized minimal government, restricting their activities to only a few fields such as defense and police. The outbreak of the virus, which requires a Herculean effort to contain it, once again highlighted the importance of government machinery. Only a strong government with its institutions and uniformed men can cope with a crisis of this magnitude. Now, individuals, communities and organizations are seeking government support to overcome the crisis. Even large corporations, which advocate laissez-faire in normal times, are demanding bailouts and stimulus packages to fuel the slowdown in the economy.
Changing dynamics of crisis management: Typically, after every crisis, be it a terrorist attack or an economic crisis, heads of state reassure their citizens not to panic and urge them to show resilience and get on with their lives usual. But now, we are looking at a completely different phenomenon in which heads of state around the world are resorting to scaremongering to force people to stay indoors. People’s reaction to the coronavirus threat has so far been undisciplined. If people don’t fix themselves, governments can even resort to using overbearing methods to control the situation.
Mercy towards animals: After the coronavirus outbreak, the animal rights organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) tweeted how the term ‘coronavirus’ turned out to be an anagram for ‘carnivore’, highlighting the fact that the pathogen originates from meat markets. The relentless proliferation of non-vegetarianism, in addition to causing excruciating pain and suffering to animals, also turned slaughterhouses and meat markets into sources of various pathogens. Most of the viruses that have affected humanity so far are of animal origin and therefore people must reform their eating habits if they want to contain virus outbreaks in the future.
End of individualism: The 21st century popularized unlimited freedom and individualism, giving greed and selfishness undue legitimacy. But incessant virus outbreaks are forcing people to put aside their individualism and retreat into the protective cocoon of collectivism by sacrificing their rights and freedoms. The aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak made people very alert about their neighborhood and the level of suspicion towards their fellow citizens skyrocketed. The responsibility to restore trust rests with everyone by behaving in a socially responsible manner.
Conclusion: However, it is difficult to accurately predict the changes that the terrible pathogen can cause. If it turns out to be a gruesome crisis with relentless spread and increased mortality, it may even end up sowing hatred towards some nationalities and some sectors of society. It already made many people detest the Chinese. It can even make people hate frequent flyers and binge-shoppers. It can make social distancing permanent, and it can even make society love those who display an introverted nature. So let’s wait and see how the world is going to emerge from the pandemic.