Response to pandemic shows us what is possible

In this unprecedented time, there is so much to learn that no one can fathom the range or detail, so immersed are we all in day-to-day conditions.

The fuller analysis will unfold in the years to come.

But right now, we can still try to reflect more deeply, and that in itself — adding reflection to our daily brain tasks — can alleviate some of the stress and helplessness.

Never before has the world been so unified in focus and response to the same phenomenon. For the first time, almost every human is aware that every other human on the planet is facing a shared threat and experiencing similar uncertainty and trepidation. This is a form of unity our species has never seen.

Here we are in a new reality where many things we couldn’t have imagined are suddenly possible: the skies clear of chem trails; the oceans less burdened by sound and pollution; cheap gas but less traffic; corporations actually thinking of their workers (maybe that’s a stretch); buying and selling no longer the dictation of the day; reflection and humility finally taking their rightful place in human consciousness. The Earth gets a break. These are indeed unprecedented days, with a global shared focus. And due to a disease that, though deadly, isn’t the mass killer of storybooks and films.

Thus, as many have pointed out, it’s a dress rehearsal for a future pandemic stemming from a more deadly virus, one perhaps to emerge from the melting permafrost in the Arctic.

We now can learn with greater urgency what kind of measures we need in order to more effectively respond to an existential threat.

This in itself may prove to be a future salvation.

But there is a grander blessing. And this isn’t to disrespect the very real suffering and death that the pandemic has caused.

Those deaths are our deaths, our loved ones gone too soon. The grander blessing is that we are all being shown what is possible.

This is a chance to recognize that massive changes in our world direction, hitherto not thought realistic, are possible. Indeed, the capitalist free-market world, the fossil-fuel world and the distracted-denial-fantasy mindset have been set aside.

It’s resoundingly clear that if we are forced to make such a radical and sudden change of direction, we could just as easily make one of our own choosing in order to counter climate change and preserve our future.

All the reasons we’ve insisted prevent or limit what can be done to set and reach environmental goals to prevent further global warming have been shown to be a reflection of biases stemming from self-interest.

So many of us have lived decadently, but now that fear has changed everything, it’s revealed how unnecessary all of that excess is.

We now know that the operating system of the planet can change because that change has been forced on us.

So there can be no more excuses insisting that we can’t voluntarily make vast changes to give Greta Thunberg the future she wants all children to have. This is a positive revelation that perhaps has been missed in our anxiety and fear.

Correspondingly, if we don’t think this through, we’ve resoundingly been shown that nature can speak harshly and that our arrogant, entitled personae are actually pretty small.