Another Day in Paradise
The climate is going down the drain, populists are gaining strength worldwide, and the pandemic is out of control. And yet we live in a paradise. Never before have we had so many chances and opportunities like today.
This morning, when I sat down on my laptop shortly after six o’clock, I was tired and depressed. The first news of the election in the USA showed that Trump would probably not lose the election as clearly as I had hoped,
I had to think about what this would mean for the global fight against the climate crisis. I was afraid that Trump would start a trend to elect crazy white men all over the world who would tear our planet down because they only care about their own power and nothing else.
Then I remembered how the Coronavirus suddenly appeared out of nowhere starting in March of this year and destroyed life as we had known it until then.
Everything together had to lead to the fact that I felt terrible.
But then I looked out the window and saw that the world was still spinning. People drove to work, mommies walked with their strollers, and the air that blew in through the open window was as fresh and invigorating as ever.
It was not all bad, I realized. And if my little world was so stable and full of hope, couldn’t it be that I missed something even on a large scale?
I thought about it. Sure, there are countries in which regressive forces seized power. But there are also still functioning democracies with great leaders who opposed populism and isolationism.
Climate change is indeed worrying, but at least most countries in the world now recognize that something must be done about it. The Paris Climate Convention is in force, and all states except the U.S. that signed the treaty are still in it.
The pandemic is now flaring up for the second time and seems even worse than in the spring, but the development of vaccines and therapies is also in full swing around the world.
All this shows me that humanity can now find solutions to even the most significant problems and threats. I know that it is by no means certain that we will solve all the pressing problems of our time before it is too late, but at least there is the possibility.
The paradisiacal thing about our time is that fewer and fewer fates become inevitable. Thirty years ago, we would have had nothing to counter a pandemic of this magnitude except contact restrictions and face masks. We should not have hoped to develop a vaccine for the next ten years. Today is different. We are technically so advanced that we could create an effective vaccine within a few months.
For me, the word Paradise has a lot to do with the word hope. Hell, on the other hand, I imagine as eternal damnation from which there is no escape. Today, there is practically no such final damnation. Ways out of our greatest crises are conceivable and possible today, which has never been the case for many millennia.
Perhaps democracy will die, maybe the climate will tip over and sweep us away, and perhaps the virus will kill many millions more people before we can defeat it. But in all cases, the opposite is also possible. And this justified hope that the opposite of a catastrophe will happen makes today’s world a paradise.
When I realized this, my depression disappeared, and my confidence returned. I was once again able to think clearly and to push my life forward energetically. Hope can give us strength and let us do the things that are necessary to improve our lives.
It does not matter what apocalyptic shadows fall on our world. We can turn the light back on and drive the clouds away. Only when no one is looking for the light switch anymore, we are lost, but this will not happen. People want to hope, and people are willing to fight for their hopes.
When this willingness meets the tools of civilization that we have today, anything is possible — even the good.
René Junge a published author writing on ILLUMINATION.
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