Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What did the world learn from the coronavirus pandemic?“

The world is still learning from the coronavirus pandemic a hard lesson in how much we all depend on each other.

It has shown us how much our health depends on other people maintaining personal hygiene and social distancing conditions.

It has also shown us how much we need and miss each other when we are faced with prolonged stay-at-home conditions, and how our economy is ill-equipped to deal with such a situation.

Many people find themselves out of work, out of business, and see no future in sight, on one hand, and on the other hand, a financial elite that continues profiting in the billions at the expense of such people.

I hope that the world will continue learning from this pandemic, as I think there are many more takeaways that society has yet to realize.

For instance, we would be wise to learn that our definition of success is in dire need of revision.

Instead of equating wealth to success, as we have done until today, we will need to start equating positive contribution to society with success.

We can see some signs of such a motion during the pandemic in the praise that health-care workers receive for their efforts to help the often-unmanageable amount of coronavirus cases.

However, we need to further internalize this redefinition of success, as our social connections, life engagements, work and social values all stem from it: There is nothing successful in being individually successful and wealthy at the expense of others. Success lies in creating a positively-connected society, where its members take responsibility and care for each other, contribute to each other’s well-being, and promote to each other the need for centering everyone’s focus on benefiting others instead of benefiting our individual selves.

The world is learning about the need to be more considerate of everyone, as we all depend on each other. However, I think that an extra “push” on our behalf to further implant this understanding will serve to better balance us with the tighter interdependence and interconnectedness that the coronavirus era has revealed to us.

Above photo by Alec Favale on Unsplash.

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