As we try to get an understanding of what lies ahead of us since the Corona virus pandemic, the one thing that is certain is that we would change, probably not as dramatically as some might think, is how we behave as a society.
Pandemic like this one is not new. Ebola, N1H1, flu from the recent past and even more deadlier ones from a while back had caused similar fear and had left us with such devastating aftermaths. But we bounce back. Memory fades, pain eases with time, hope overcomes death & bad experiences and we resort back to what is convincingly human – being social.
People wearing masks relax on benches in a park amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson 
Images showing social distancing in effect in USA. Pictures credited to various news agencies.
But if we step back we may be able to see a much deeper and saddening story that this pandemic has been trying to tell us. There is for one, a general lack of trust in your social companions.
Whether China caused this outbreak or whether the virus was leaked on purpose, there seems to be a growing acceptance of pattern of biological elements often acting or made to act as a weapon to eliminate life. In the past, large powerful rich countries have spent immense amount of resources to weaponify life forms like viruses – this one could have happened naturally but this also proved how destructive and crippling one such weapon could be in the wrong hands.
Secondly, a society cares for each other in the community. The American way of life is showed how fragile we are as a community of humans. A misplaced sense of entitlement caused a large number of people in the US to violate a very scientific way of containing the epidemic. People rushed out, some with military grade ammunition, others with a mouth larger than their brains, because they felt their freedom is being curtailed.
Reminds me of a story of two Englishmen walking towards each other, with one swinging his cane callously. When they approached near to each other, the cane, now swinging wildly almost seeming to hurt the other gentleman approaching from front, touched this gentleman’s nose. Off to court they went to plead their cases.
The first gentleman argued it is his right to swing his cane and its the freedom he enjoys to claim his own space. To this the judge replied “Yes certainly. But your freedom ends where the other gentleman’s nose begins”. Freedom without intelligence, empathy and social consciousness is dangerous.
So while most of us, living from day to day, balancing of what we dream of versus what we have to live, are caught between a rock and a hard stone at the moment. I reflect on the fact that as an individual, I again question the very purpose of life – its goals and whether a minimalistic lifestyle would have made it easier for me to cope with such devastation both mentally as well as physically.