Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How is the new COVID-19 disease going to affect the world?“

Before we discuss how the COVID-19 disease is going to affect the world, it helps to be aware of the deeper causes behind its appearance, and then to understand how we can best use this period of social distancing we have been placed in to impact a positive shift in society.

While there are many theories as to what caused the coronavirus, the deeper cause was our imbalance with nature. We were in an egoistic-competitive rat race, where we each sought self-benefit at the expense of others, and it was getting out of hand.

If the coronavirus would not have arisen, then we would have led ourselves to a man-made crisis. I think another world war would not have been out of the question.

Therefore, the coronavirus crisis emerged to save us from a much more severe crisis. As strange as it might sound, it came mercifully from nature in order to isolate us from the exploitative and manipulative world we created, as it washes away the waste from that world. Similar to how we had been dumping plastic and radioactive waste into our oceans, we had also been polluting human society.

Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash

Now, while we are in this unique era brought about by the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create a new and upgraded world, one where positive human connections become the leading value.

While under stay-at-home orders, we have time and space to review the way we live our lives. Reviewing the way we used to live our lives, if the coronavirus would not have struck us, we would have been driving ourselves faster and faster toward an oncoming wall.

Therefore, what should we be looking forward to when we exit this era?

Should we be waiting to head back to our 10-to-12 hour work days, traffic jams, pollution, debt, and myriad other personal, social and ecological problems?

Or would we be wiser to use this transitional era in order to help each other make a big step into a new world: to think about how we can improve human connections, replacing our past egoistic and exploitative relationships with altruistic and mutually considerate ones?

Without philosophizing too much about how the coronavirus will affect the world, we would use our current physical detachment from each other more beneficially if we would first internalize how to stop relating negatively to each other. We have been given time and space to achieve this.

Afterward, gradually, new situations will emerge where we will be able to connect more intensively in positive, supportive, encouraging and considerate ways.

If we succeed in upgrading our connections during this period, then when the stay-at-home orders will be lifted and the coronavirus is under control, we would also continue what we now begin: to appreciate positive human connections benefiting everyone over self-benefit.

We would then enter into balance with nature—the discovery of a harmonious world filled with delight, peace and happiness, and we would be guarded from any kinds of future pandemics and other crises.

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