Usually at this time of the year we would write about the European Cultural Capitals or propose a great trip, as we do every month. We will do it again soon. But now it’s time to stop, seclude ourselves for our sake and everyone else’s, and take the opportunity to do things we don’t usually do. Among them to reflect with pause, without haste and without prejudice. Let’s see where our thoughts take us.
“Background” on the coronavirus crisis.
In recent weeks there is a movie that sweeps: Contagio. A 2011 production with Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and more Hollywood stars. Despite its cast and the good work of its director, Steven Soderbergh, the film did not have excessive repercussion. Perhaps because of its distressing plot about a lethal virus that emerged in the East, which reaches the West by air and spreads around the globe, killing thousands of people and collapsing life as we know it.
Contagion of 2011
Does it ring a bell? Watching it today is shocking. It is an excellent entertainment product, but now it acquires another dimension, because of its surprising parallels with what we are all living these days. We repeat this because this is a key concept: we are ALL living it.
“Plagues and wars always catch people unawares”. Albert Camus wrote it in 1947. And rationally it should not have to be so. Contagion, and many other movies about planetary pandemics, show that we are capable of imagining such situations. On the other hand there are already numerous bodies, such as the UN, designed to unite all countries in the face of common dangers. In other words, we are able to visualize the problem before it exists and we have the tools to combat it, or at least mitigate it. And yet, the spread of the coronavirus has shown that there is no global plan for such a threat.
The Plague by Albert Camus
The light side in this dark present
It is clear that one cannot foresee a vaccine for something that did not exist until a few months ago. Just as you can not store a massive stock of masks, gloves, respirators, ICU beds, … But it is undeniable that the creative human imagination has foreseen the catastrophe, so that creativity could also be applied to international political management to design a global action plan. That is to say, that ALL countries follow the same criteria for action in the face of a devastating and common enemy, which crosses borders, humiliates nationalisms and despises ideologies. It does not look at passports, races or creeds. And yet, we have already had months of serious world crisis, and there is still no common response. Each country is doing its own thing, and COVID-19 is growing.
It may be a naïve idea, but perhaps in a short time, when the emergency subsides, this utopian and revolutionary option will be valued. All of humanity acting in unison – truly revolutionary!
More “background information
Daniel Dafoe, the same author of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1722 the Diary of the Plague Year. In it he recounts the figures, the damage, the progress and setbacks, in the fight against the Great Plague that ravaged England in the seventeenth century. A type of report with a literary rhythm, but with the same spirit as the daily press conference given by the authorities to inform us of the figures, damages, progress and setbacks.
Saramago’s Essay on Blindness, from 1995.
In 1995, Nobel laureate José Saramago opened our eyes with his Essay on Blindness. A brutal novel about an epidemic that blinds all of humanity. In reality, the Portuguese tells a metaphor about the lack of solidarity of society and the selfishness of the individual. And without going to the extremes of the story, we have seen some of that, and unfortunately we continue to see it today in our cities.
1995 outburst
The true potential of the pandemic
The same year that Essay on Blindness was published, Estallido, centered on a lethal epidemiological outbreak in the heart of Africa, hit theaters. To contain it, the most brutal means of destruction are used. Stop and think. The coronavirus has emerged in a leading economy and is especially affecting developed countries. At least that’s what the data say, because no one can be sure of its current spread on the African continent. Let’s hope that it is as scarce as they say, but even so we must be aware of the catastrophic devastation that such a virus can cause for our African neighbors. So containing its spread there, after all, is nothing less than protecting ourselves.
Cinema and literature have reflected with their hyperbole and artifice scenarios like the current one. So has painting throughout history. Paintings by the Renaissance painter Brueghel, the Mannerist Tintoretto, the Baroque Poussin, neoclassical and romantic painters, the great Goya… all of them have captured in images the pain and devastation caused by epidemics. Undoubtedly, they are images of other times, with other environments and certainly with health resources light years away from ours (at least in our privileged first world). However, beyond the Dantesque or horrifying images of the past, it is not difficult to identify with the feeling of collective helplessness and the pain of loss that they transmit.
Goya’s Corral de los apestados of 1810
Art, culture, in its broadest sense, creativity, that is, what truly distinguishes human beings from any other species, is capable of taking advantage of such situations and finding a loophole for creation. And in every era it has been done with the style and tools of the moment. And undoubtedly today technology and the Internet are the tools we have at our disposal.
The answer
It’s mind-blowing to see in streaming how the health crisis and confinement activate the creative springs of thousands of people around the world. And it is not only a matter of renowned artists. Many other anonymous people sing, act or draw to entertain us through the networks or from their terraces. Not to mention companies that have transformed their production processes to create innovative masks, gowns or various sanitary materials. Or computer scientists who adapt apps to connect people with common goals. Cultural and tourism technicians who have activated web-cams and virtual tours, so that we can escape mentally. Or personal trainers who have redesigned their workouts so that children or grandparents can take advantage of them, OR… OR… OR… OR…
Examples abound. And they are always seasoned with a generous dose of solidarity. Solidarity for ALL. A true lesson in citizenship that should be analyzed by whomever it may concern, in order to learn from it. Just as the immediate ecological benefit of slowing down our frenetic pace of life should be analyzed. That is to say, we will have to analyze, take note and extract the positive lessons that such a tremendous drama leaves us.
Exit from the crisis
The word crisis comes from Greek, and from an etymological point of view, it means change. For conjunctural reasons, exclusive to a specific moment and situation, changes arise that provoke an evolution, and therefore become structural changes. It is interesting to keep this definition in mind, to visualize the coronavirus crisis with different eyes. Obviously, the essential thing is to defeat it from a health point of view. But let us dream for a moment and see that the crisis is over.
It will be the moment to understand the weakness of ALL in the face of similar threats. And that defense is only possible with the coordinated and unison participation of ALL. Maybe, hopefully this virus will make us see certain issues with an idea of the species, of the whole, of humanity. There are issues that transcend personal, ideological or belief realms. Nor are they issues to be dealt with as a nation, or even as a continent.
We love to use the word globalization. And we love the positive aspects of it. We marvel at how a new cell phone, car or console is launched at the same time in different stores around the world, regardless of time zones, currencies, languages or continents. This is the A side of globalization. Side B is the coronavirus. Why not fight it all with identical precision, ALL coordinated, with the same strategy, wherever, at the same time and with the same tools?
Have you noticed that many conversations with friends and family end with “we’ll learn something from this”. Hopefully.
