The True Causes of Pandemics and How to Ameliorate them
I. Our Polarised State
The debate over how to handle pandemics have been at the center of public discourse for the last 1,5 years, and have for valid reasons created an unprecedented polarity amongst us. Generally speaking, we are likely to find ourselves either on the side of enacting any policy necessary to curb the spread, or strongly opposed to said policies.
It seems that already existing polarisation, which can roughly be categorised as right/left in the political sense, has been enhanced by the pandemic, increasing the level of fear on both sides dramatically. It is exactly this fear which, if left unaddressed, will truly lead us astray, as it can impede our ability to think by a drastic amount. We become extremely aware and cautious of any actions of our “opponents”, while failing entirely to see the blindspots of our own stance, which are usually exactly what the other side fears.
Those of us fearful of the virus and in agreement with mainstream government opinion, whether on behalf of ourselves or vulnerable parts of the population, often fail to recognise or acknowledge the actual nature of the policies that are enacted in the name of protecting us. The framework is simple; a dangerous virus is attacking us, and we need to protect ourselves by any means necessary. Thereby, we fail to see both how the measures might impact the lives of others in the economic and social sphere, but also the profoundly authoritarian nature of the measures themselves.
On the other side, we have people who recognise exactly this blindspot, for whom the real danger then is less the virus itself, but the encroachment of authoritarianism.
This is not to say that one side is “right” in some objective way, but instead to bring to light how much we truly live in parallel realities.
The antidote to this polarisation then, is looking beyond the narratives and beliefs we hold to, in an attempt to look more objectively at the fundamental nature of our reality.
II. Looking Beyond the Polarisation
The natural world is in steep decline. We do not need to agree on whether climate change is real or not to face this fact, as we are now witnessing the increasing decimation of nature all over the world.
Almost regardless of where you look, nature is being pushed to the limit. The oceans are being depleted and acidified, our rivers polluted to the point of being dangerous, and our food-production has been decimated by chemical agriculture to the point of both the soil dying and our food lacking nutrients.
We may believe ourselves separate to nature, yet our own health seems to be in a similar decline, as we now see extremely high rates of chronic disease and cancer all over the world.
The ecosystem of earth, of which we are apart, is dying.
The pandemic is not an attack by nature upon us, but instead it is a symptom of a vulnerability which we ourselves have created. Our bodies are designed to interact with billions of viruses, constantly, without any problem. If we find ourselves being hurt by them, we are blaming a symptom for showing us the results of our own actions.
By now it is absolutely clear that those who are truly vulnerable to our current pandemic are the elderly and obese, as they tend to have lowered states of health, making them unable to interact properly with the virus.
A similar situation is found when people with cancer, and thus lowered health, die from the common flu. We wouldn’t in this case assume that the flu is suddenly a danger to us all, but instead see that it is the vulnerability of the person which is the real issue.
Thus, masks, vaccines, and other measures can be seen as mere bandaids placed on a tumor. They fail to resolve the root cause of the issue, and can even make it worse by giving us a false sense of safety.
III. A New Way Forward
We are a part of nature.
Our bodies are sovereign to no one but ourselves, yet we are nonetheless a part of an ecosystem upon which we depend. The societies we have created are in many ways fundamentally incompatible with the earth, and we are now facing the consequences of our narcissistic attitude towards both the natural world and each other.
The virus policies as they stand are offer nothing but false hope of safety and certain power for authoritarian parties. We need to let go of the notion that we are at war with nature, as it is us who are behaving like a cancer upon this planet, and in the process killing ourselves.
There is no viable future for us without the recognition that we need to work with the natural world. It is the only way we can ameliorate our current disastrous state, and find some semblance of health and well being.
Governments and corporations will continue to claim that we are powerless, and that the enemy is the other half of the population.
We need to ignore this fear-mongering, and shift our mindsets towards taking responsibility of our lives, and it is then that we will see the potential for regeneration of not only the earth, but also our own health.
That is true safety, and it is not at odds with freedom.
