Individuals and institutions are affected in different, mutually reinforcing ways by COVID-19 and the measures to contain it. We will look at both spheres briefly to place the foundation for what follows. Since it is easy to limit the scope of attention to the circumstances that are in our immediate vicinity, especially in times of acute crises, the section on institutions is dedicated to the question of global interaction among people, systems, and countries. In other words, not all institutions will be looked at, but only those that provide guidance and support within the nexus between humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, and social transformation: the donor community, international NGOs, and the United Nations System (UN). Their reason to be is to ensure that peace and prosperity are not limited to countries and citizens that can fend for themselves, but everyone, independently from geography. The spotlight on them is justified in the context of this book, because the needs of those people who are always out of sight must not be out of mind now.
COVID-19 is a reminder that humans around the World are fundamentally all the same: the result of four dimensionsâsoul, heart, mind, and body, which find their expression in aspirations, emotions, thoughts, and sensations. Their mutual interplay will play a fundamental role in the crisis at hand and the search for a solution to the underlying systemic social paradox. The unfolding situation may either serve as a social equalizer, because it affects people independently from their passport, income, skin color, gender, and skills, or it may cultivate a groundswell of drastic disconnection. Everyone is affected by the Virus and the measures to contain it, directly or indirectly; yet the way in which individuals are impacted by the situation varies dramatically, on a physical, mental, social, and material level.1 The present discrepancy of equal exposure/unequal outcome derives from the systemic setting that we have been evolving in, individually and collectively over the past centuries. It is the consequence of our collective past.
Until March 2020, it was possible for many people and governments to ignore the division that marks Society. No longer âbecause now, in the era of the virus, a poor personâs sickness can affect a wealthy societyâs healthâ (Roy 2020). COVID-19 does not discriminate between those who get infected. From celebrities to blue-collar workers, from housewives to academics, beyond gender and paychecks, across nations and literacy levels, people fall sick, some of them fatally. It is a context that is prone to panic and fear, to isolation and xenophobia. But the experience that sick people and their families go through depends on paycheck and location. If you are poor and/or live in a low-income country, your chances to get severely sick and die are significantly heightened, while the likelihood of quality health care diminishes dramatically. The universality of impact coupled with the unequal chances of survival is a prime illustration of the systemic social paradox that has shaped our collective existence for centuries. Reality unfolds into a frail scenario, when few have a lot and many have (too) little, while the sum of resources would suffice to cover everyoneâs essential needs. A shock like COVID-19 shakes and potentially re-shuffles that feeble framework.
Addressing this paradox which may appear like a Gordian knot, begins at the core of the core, at the center of the smallest entity of our collective existence. Solving the conundrum that COVID-19 has placed in our hands begins with the aspiration of individual beings.
Individuals who do not only know what they want for themselves, and for their community; but who are ready to invest their energy, skills, and resources to make it happen, influence what happens next. There are, and always have been, many factors that are out of our control. COVID-19 brutally reminded us that whatever illusion of stability and homeostasis we had, it was nothing more but a temporary grip on a glitchy, morphing, dissolving, and ever-revolving realityâwhich is by its own nature out of control. We cannot control the meso-, macro-, and meta-dimensions that we are part of; but what we do and who we are influences what happens next. This may seem contradictory, but it is not.
1.1 Micro-Entities
Before we move on, let us look at the differences between us and the Virus, and the aspects that we have in common.
The coronavirus virus is not a living organism, but a protein molecule (DNA) covered by a protective layer of lipid tissue (fat). When absorbed by the cells of the ocular, nasal, or buccal mucosa, it changes its genetic code. This âmutationâ converts previously innocent cells into aggressor and multiplier cells (John Hopkins University 2020), which represent a danger for the human organism. Since the Virus is not an active entity, it is not killed, but decays on its own. Its disintegration time depends on the temperature, humidity, and type of material where it lies. Here, the comparison becomes interesting because human beings have different ways to leave this life, being killed by an external influence (such as an accident, violence/murder, flood, earthquake, etc.), a self-inflicted one (suicide), or natural causes.
Like us the Virus is fragile; the only thing that protects it is a thin outer layer. The foam of soap or detergent cuts that fat layer, which causes the protein molecule to disperse and break down on its own. Similarly, the human being is protected from the outside only by the physical layer of the body. Sickness and death derive from damages to this physical shell. We have aspirations, emotions, and thoughts which influence our mental health and personal well-being, unlike the Virus. However as for the latter, our mental2 and material well-being is heavily impacted by the prevailing environment.
If exposed to light, in particular UV light, the Virus deteriorates quickly, whereas humans need light to live longer. While glued to a surface the Virus is inert, it disintegrates depending on the nature of the surface in about three hours (fabric and porous), four hours (copper and wood), 24 hours (cardboard), 42 hours (metal), and 72 hours (plastic). When the surface is put in rapid motion, the virus comes to float in the air again, which then increases the likelihood that it is breathed in. Similarly, humans tend to inertia (Taylor 2011). Left without external influence, we have a preference to pursue the course of action we are on.
Inertia is a psychological phenomenon that is influenced by our past behavior, and it influences our future behavior. The challenge to change our expressions in the outside world derives from the deep roots that most of our behavior patterns have inside, drawing on emotions and thoughts, on archived memories. The heaviness of personal change appears when it comes to modifying behaviors that bring short-term physical pleasure but have negative medium and long-term consequences. Changing the attitudes, preferences, and belief systems that underpin an ingrained behavior pattern involves major effort; investing energy in something that does not yield an immediate benefitâlike quitting to smoke, or shifting from a couch-chips-computer routine to a more active lifestyleâis not appealing at first sight. However, in contrast to the Virus we can proactively amend our own course of action. We have the power to choose what we do. In the current context, this choice is central to everything that happens now and comes next.
The Virus is dead, immobile, and decays if left alone. We are alive, mobile and have the power to choose a course of action to protect ourselves, our communities, and hereby Society from premature decay and death. This opportunity of agency is the core difference between us and the Virus. If we seize it, we win, individually and collectively.
The surrealistic scenario that settled into a transient normality during the Pandemic illustrates certain universal principles in an unprecedented way: Everything is connected. Nothing happens in a vacuum. The ongoing interplay of our aspirations, emotions, thoughts, and sensations determines how we experience our environment. Understanding this individual four-dimensional operating model of our human nature matters. Because once we grasp How it makes us Who we are presently, we can start to systematically influence this intrinsic dynamic to become who we want to be in the future. Being aware of the interplay between mind and matter, being and doing, internal and external reality enables us to gradually shape how we experience the environment and express ourselves in it. This personal shift determines our own future, and that of others.
Everything is linked, from the inside out and from the outside in (Figs. 1.1 and 1.2). As it will be explained below, individuals represent the micro-dimension of a collective four-dimensional system (Walther 2020). They form and experience the meso-dimen...