We live in the third millennium, in what is supposed to be a very advanced world on all levels; in times that should bring people closer to their inner selves, bringing out the best in each. Nonetheless, we witness the complete opposite; the start and persist of times exposing the collective failure of humanity to be able to survive without revealing its dark side, intriguing the worst feeling: FEAR.
The 21century modern life is labelled with fear. All kinds of dark events took place starting with the terrorist attack on the twin towers in the United States, resulting in the falling of many countries of the Middle East, paving the path for ISL to emerge, the destruction “Arab Spring” brought, and later the second wave of the “Arab Spring”.
Many countries witnessed economic crises and a growing immigrant population, and numerous acts of cowardice and evil done by terrorists all around the world.
Peace keepers and peace seekers worldwide, stepped forward trying to maintain peace and keep societies and human connection intact through proposing several initiatives among them interfaith and intercultural dialogues. All these great efforts are but attempts to defuse people’s tension and minimize fear. Fear paralyses thoughts and diminishes all positive emotions. It leads to anger, and as science explains it: one negative emotion leads to another similar or even higher negative one.
And now, with the emergence of pandemic COVID-19, the world is faced with a novel and intense fear. Covid19 is an invisible enemy targeting anyone at any time. It places the modern societies with a unique and weak situation to face different kind of war against a virus we cannot shoot.
To combat the outbreak, resulted in changing people’s lives-drastically. In many ways, people around the world are sharing the same pattern of lifestyle controlled by fear of getting infected by the disease from others, and the fear of death. Among the many is quarantine, social distancing, wearing masks and gloves, relying on more and more on the modern technology to ease everyday life.
The real concern expected is the economic fallout, which will result in the rise number of unemployment, thus the increase in poverty.
As a result, societies will witness class division which I believe is the real danger and the prime challenge governments will soon face. It is the imminent threat emerging. Wise governments will start formulating plans to tackle this issue with wisdom and unrelenting efforts. Imprudent governments will fail to take any responsibility.
*Journalist and writer specialized in Interfaith dialogue, peace catalyst
