Corona: A war we must fight together...
As it's popularly
said, Change is the only constant thing in life, and human behaviour is always act cautiously
during such changes. The adaptability for the particular change depends on lot
of things which have been developed by homo sapiens till now. There comes
groundbreaking, incredible 'Change' after every few hundred years which not
only reshapes the world but significantly changes the way of life for humans.
Fortunately
or Unfortunately this COVID-19/ Corona virus outbreak is another such change we
as global society is facing now. The possible reasons for an outbreak of this disastrous
pandemic will be researched and possibly the vaccine will be developed; but as
a student of sociology this outbreak has something to tell us about some of the
structural and behavioural changes we as an individual and as a global society are
experiencing now and soon will be shaping the future of our societies.
The social
behaviour of the people during such unprecedented disasters is always an area
of interest for many sociologists. We humans have experienced lot of such
disasters in forms of famines, droughts, various natural calamities, disease
outbreaks and wars! As a result an 'updated' versions of we humans to the
next best possible stages emerged which helped us strive in those challenges.
This Novel Corona Virus pandemic is no exception to this process of our
evolution. This has brought various less popular and less followed concepts (being a citizen of developing
nations lot of stuff is new and yet to internalize it.) such as social or
physical distancing, Lockdown, frequent sanitization, collective consciousness
etc. The adherence to the directions of the authorities is must when such
situations arises but at the same time we are doubtful and distrustful about
the instructions given. "We live in
a culture where we value archetypes and actions that privilege individual
freedom over solidarity and collective care."(1)
This brings another dilemma of
collective responsibility and individual liberty in this kind of
situations. but what we really need to focus on, for at least till the
discovery of vaccine is 'Collective Consciousness.' Collective Consciousness is a special bond of
what we as an individual carry within ourselves and which at the same time
compels our adherence to the group norms. Society is made up of individuals
who are part of different groups such as family, society, nation and globe at
large based on which the ability of humans to think, act, judge, react or
interact shaped. It further helps us to conceptualize 'us' and 'others' and
interact accordingly.(2)
The theory which was first
developed by sociologist Emile Durkheim in his 'The division of
labour in society'(1983) has its relevance more than ever today, when the
world is on the verge of greatest pandemics of this century. This collective
consciousness is determined by collective relations of individuals in society.
Unlike the social consciousness which is determined by the social relations
which are historically influenced the collective consciousness depends on
the co-existence of the different groups of the people ie. 'collective
existence.' "Coexistence
is what ultimately determines the level of collective consciousness in any
given society (3)."
Doing something collectively
conscious requires huge force; which will be strong, interesting and important
enough so that every individual will act collectively by shading away all the
barriers of their respective group identities. The
unequal access to scientific knowledge and education has left many members of
our society with little understanding or respect for the discipline and
sacrifice required to become an expert in, say, epidemiology This distrust of rational authority has
also produced a plethora of "folk wisdom" and conspiracy
theories that access to knowledge would dispel.(4)
The intentional hiding of travel history
and physical spread across the nation in India by some members of Tabilghi Jamat
from New Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz has
spiked the curve of Corona spread in the country.(5) Although was it just the distrust of rational authority or
intentional spread of disease is a matter of fact and soon the authorities will
find it out but it's definitely a failure of collective consciousness by
some of the community members. The recent people crowding all over the country
in front of vine shops are another level hypocrites and same as offenders
as the above which will have unexpected ramifications in future.
(image credit : https://www.tni.org/en/article/coronavirus-the-need-for-a-progressive-internationalist-response)
On the other hand when entire human race
is battling against the virus with best possible ways 'The West' (which accused
the East and under developed countries of being less humans both mentally and
physically or socially) is no longer an exception for the failure of collective
human behavior, people who have protested against the authorities despite the
lock-down by not following any of the physical distancing rules is another
obstacle in battle against the virus.(6) This has further triggered the thought,
whether the economic development of country determines the socio-behavioral
maturity of that country? and further
vanished the misconception of White men's burden from dictionaries.
This inappropriate folk wisdom which
further deteriorated the management of Corona will have severe impacts on the
situation. but at same time we should be rational and questionable against the
coercive actions of the governments, if there are any. The privacy is the
biggest concern in the situations like this which should be checked in proper
way.
At the same time the world experiencing
overwhelming support for Corona Warriors all across the world. In many
countries people are coming together to appreciate the warriors. India's
initiative of clapping and lighting the lamp for few minutes on different
occasions is one such collective effort
to appreciate and encourage the warriors further.
These kind of activities will definitely
boost the collective consciousness and at the same time will bring together
people across globe on the same page to fight against this and lot more unforeseen
disasters to come. "principle
of collective consciousness, which comes from Yoga Vasistha Chapter
6". Yoga Vasistha is a popular philosophical text attributed
to the sage Valmiki Collectively whatever we think, at the level of quantum physics...at
level of String Theory... everything will unite together to work in our body."(7)
This war against the
corona is long and unprecedented one. The economic consequences will be disastrous
and no one knows when it will recover totally. We are expecting few new normal's
in days to come be it wearing of the masses, using of sanitizers and washing
hands frequently, strictly following physical distancing and many others. It
may alter our way of festival celebrations, corporate meetings, political
gatherings and many other things but at the core we should accept those changes
not as compulsion but as collective conscious.
Let us hope we humans
will triumph in this battle against Corona, let us hope people, leaders and
nations across the globe will come together to fight this war. The weapons
to fight this long war are collective sacrifice and responsible behavior combined with collective consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha and
many other symbolic virtues like Dandi march may not have won the freedom war against
Britishers but it has certainly created an environment where people stood
together, thought together and directed their actions and interactions for the
noble cause of freedom of India. In same way we can think up on Collective
Consciousness as an impactful tool to sustain ourselves in this corona
pandemic.
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References -
1.April 6, 2020 Solidarity and social
distancing: A sociologist's perspective. and (4)
2.Zukerfeld, M. 2017.
“How to Know Knowledge? Introducing Cognitive Materialism.” Pp. 25 in Knowledge
in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism.
London: University of Westminster Press. and (3).
7. dr. KK Aggarwal, Cardiologist,national president of IMA.
