Future historians may be tempted to draw a line between the Before Covid (BC) and the After Deluge (AD) world, given the impact of the novel coronavirus on the entire humanity. As our aptitude in terms of science, technology and medicine provide little clue to the pandemic, we need to reset the attitude, the way we look at the world. It was some kind of auto correction effected by the perfectly intelligent system like Nature. The unbridled consumption of humanity was untenable and the warning is loud and clear — mend your ways. Nature is a grand Supra-system, the planet earth being a sub system that needs to be in an equilibrium with the larger whole. When this is disrupted the remedial action to restore the equilibrium sets in motion. Of late, the faulty consumption patterns were disturbing the equilibrium and there were signals of distress coming up in many forms, climate change being one. However, they were ignored and rampant consumption went on leading to the present crisis. It is a typical case of market response to system. Now the system needs to respond. The big question is how. The forced lockdown is that act of penance that would train humanity to think anew. The whole perspective has to change. The outlook, the philosophy and the life styles will require a reorientation. The marketing driven, consumption fuelled economic philosophy will have to shift to a conservation oriented economic philosophy harping on the long run sustainability focused economic models that would check greed and discourage vulgar consumerism. As the scary future scenario painted by the mathematico-statistical graphics projected by many research agencies day in and day out warn of the possible apocalypse, the world never appeared so close to the deluge that the old testament talked about. Remembering the anguish of God that made him send the deluge may not be out of place. The relevant portion from the book of Genesis part 1 is paraphrased here. First, God created a world that was good and fit for mankind. But when man corrupted it with sin, God decided to destroy his creation, saving only the righteous Noah. Lest we forget, let us recapitulate God’s anguish as quoted — “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the Earth, and he was grieved in his heart.” So the decision to destroy man was there. Let us figure out what went wrong. Excessive and unethical consumption led to a huge disruption in the ways of the world creating a lopsided model of development. This tampered with the market or the nature. It has, finally, given a grim warning to mankind to mend its ways. Some were already saying that most of the consumption we did was unnecessary and not needed. Now most people are realising it. This has to be the way of life in the post Covid World and we must reset our moral compass to resort to more sensible economic models of development based on ethical consumption. Human beings must now realise that they were created to be the most supreme of creatures. In their un-tempered arrogance, they squandered this advantage. It is time to question where we stand today.
Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com
