Almost two years into the pandemic, are we primed for a Coronaissance? asks Neelima Mathur
” I love to go [to the market] and see all the things I am happy without.” Socrates.
It was due. Humanity and the Earth were crying for it. A rebirth…but it could happen only after a black death. Global institutions became too big,gigantism too large. Capitalism took charge. Humans became numbers for outreach, output and scalability in the development sector. Like inmates in a prison. Between multinational companies and the World Trade Organisation, everything linked to mankind went into a spin – self-generated and manufactured. Increased wealth did not make for happier human beings.
Anything that was powerless or voiceless, was devoured with greed and heartlessness. Peaking with the screaming realities staring at us today. Vast tracts of land disappeared, fossil fuels became precious, seas began to rise. Climate Change became the new ‘scare’. Even that was not good enough to bring humanity to its senses – voluntarily. The busy-ness of acquiring wealth, power, fame, remained un-stemmed. It was well-accompanied with avarice, greed, ostentation, display. Backroom parlays ensured ‘consensus’ for fulfilling each – read corruption.
The scenario became as glib as it could get. ‘Instant’ and ‘Now’ were the mantras. Wealth and access made it possible.
A virus became the great equaliser. Brought it all to a halt. Now, mankind is struggling with questions that have not occurred to most at the turn of the century. Suddenly, the ‘I’ is turning into a ‘We’. A collective spirit is silently escalating in the desperation to survive the onslaught of an unseeable virus. Rich economies facing a COVID-19 explosion need help from the less wealthy nations.
Before the European Rennaisance, religious and philosophical beliefs spread and inter-mingled across trade routes. There were conflicts and the Crusades were like a culminating symbol of that era. Scholars began delving into ancient Greek and Roman texts in search for a new value system. There were innovations in publishing and the arts. The printing press arrived with long-term impact. Increased literacy meant people could read and interpret texts for themselves, not via a priest.
More than anything else, though, it was the Black Death that impacted the rise of the Renaissance. Words like ‘Great Mortality’ eerily evoke the COVID-19 era. The ‘Great Pestilence’ spread relentlessly across large tracts of Europe and Asia.
People were stupefied that they did not know how to stop the spread. The balance of power and wealth in Europe completely changed. Society was primed for the Renaissance.
Are we primed for a Coronaissance?
There has been an exceptional global exchange of diverse socio-economic-cultural and scientific theories. Worldwide, stakeholders have developed one or other form of interconnectedness – both physically, and now, virtually. Religious thinking has taken various forms, including the fundamentalist, with an equal number of diverse responses to it. The Internet is an explosion of information. The Smartphone is increasingly making this flow of information available for anyone, anywhere, even across the Digital Divide.
Then comes COVID-19 and the world is dumbstruck. From royalty downwards, no one knows where the virus will strike. Figures of death is what people are looking at. The fear psychosis has reached mob hysteric levels. Is there a chance that Humanism will make a comeback? Will concepts of spirituality and justice take root?
A book written in the mid-1970s has re-emerged for relevance time and again: Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher. Almost ten years ago, Madeline Bunting revisited the book and the concepts in an article in The Guardian of UK. In the COVID-19 scenario, it has strong takeaways. The large scales of big markets and big political entities led to a dehumanisation of people and the economic system. Profit was the only guiding factor, disregarding human need. Down the line, people tried to revive the human / small aspect. Again, voracious expansion of consumer capitalism distorted these initiatives.
As Schumacher indicated in his book: Human happiness would not be achieved through material wealth. Going back to the human scale is imperative – to focus on human needs and human relationships. From that will spring the ethical response of stewardship to the environment. Maybe time to take a leaf from Confucius: “We are so busy doing the urgent, we do not have time to do the important.”
(This article is a revised version of the original published in The Asian Age)
