Coronavirus, and the Reversal of Equality

This is the beginning, but already, at the start of a huge and sometimes tragic cataclysm in the story of Earth and Man, you and I and all who live on Earth are showing our shadows and our light as we respond to the challenges of something we do not fully understand and are very unprepared for. 

It is human to feel anxiety when warned of danger: some of us go underground, hide and hope it will go away or not touch us; others of us think immediately of family and neighbours, seeking actively to support them by shopping for them or otherwise showing we care; some of us think more of ourselves and our own needs as we shop in bulk and argue over the last avocado on the shelf; others, perhaps exhausted and worried for their families and their jobs, nonetheless go to their work to ensure supplies are re-stocked and deliveries are made, hospitals are manned and the frail cared for; some others of us want to help but do not know how as we respect the rules of seclusion and pray for the world and its future; and others more worry about their investments and how much money they might lose.  How different we are, but united in our humanity and the opportunity to learn and do better next time.

Next time is the next age, and the next age is now, but few people know this.  The signs of the next age, after just a few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis, are before us but, again, few people see this.  They do not see, too, that the gods above will continue to remind us of how we need to change until we acknowledge the truth and change our way of life forever.  It must be done.  Procrastination and excuse is ended.

The western world has prided itself on its spirit of democracy and efforts on equality.  True equality cannot exist in a world where we are judged by wealth and financial success, by what we have and what we do, and our world is more unequal now than ever with the distortion between rich and poor being unforgivable.  How remarkable and apposite it is, then, that the COVID-19 crisis is resulting already in a reversal of fortune for the forgotten many and the fortunate few. 

As we focus on the health challenges of the virus, the consequences for world economies and personal wealth has not yet been fully recognised.  This is not a short-term incident of a few months only but one that will have long-term implications particularly as it is accompanied by parallel experiences coming soon.  As a result the rich may feel poorer, and unable, this time, to control the flow and destination of money and what was their power base, and the new stars will be the people who are indispensable in this time of crisis – the supermarket workers and the food pickers, the ambulance drivers and the undertakers, the deep-cleaners and the postmen and women, and every hospital staff member whatever their degree. 

We need them and should love them for what they do.  They are essential workers, hugely important as they have always been but even more so now, and this is being recognised publicly by governments, at last, in this time of crisis, as their welfare and availability to do their work are prioritised above all else: it is the reversal of what has been an imbalanced “equality”, and it is up to us to ensure that those who give so much for so little reward are recognised and thanked as they deserve.  This is the time of reckoning, and of truth.

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