How compartmentalized is your life?
How are you doing? How are you feeling lately? Are you feeling you cannot cope with your emotions and feelings? Are you feeling tired, depressed, unwilling and demotivated? Unable to project yourself in the near future? Unable to even anticipate what will happen within the next few weeks or even next month? Constantly having ups and downs and mood swings?
How compartmentalized is your life? How do you handle life's emotions such as fears, doubts, anxiety, pain, stress, joy, love and happiness on a daily basis with the current situation?
Personally, when I get overwhelmed, I try to take a step back, to look at the situation from a distance, to analyze, then compartmentalize and organize my thoughts and emotions, to take or make the best decisions, depending on the situation and the circumstances, to move forward and carry on. We all have to go through this process each day of our lives, consciously or unconsciously.
The best way (to do it) is to try to keep things positive by having a positive attitude and looking at things on the bright side (as much as possible). Too much negativity in your head and around you, either from you or from other people in your daily surroundings, will unavoidably affect you, one way or another, and worsen your state of mind. So, keep away from people that are too negative or toxic in your life. More especially if you already have difficulties to handle and deal with your emotions yourself.
Aside from keeping things and thoughts on the positive side, it is also very important to take some time for yourself and do something for yourself. Something that you want to do and that will please you, make you happy and give you personal satisfaction and gratification.
Taking the time to do things for yourself is very therapeutic in many ways, as it has for immediate effect to increase the production of endorphins, your body's natural pain reliever, produced in response to stress or discomfort, which usually increases when you engage in reward-producing activities, such as eating, working out, or having sex. Which, in turn, triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin, two types of neurotransmitters in the brain associated with feelings and the body's sensations of joy and happiness.
Most people usually find peace with themselves, (inner peace), when they do something concrete, by being creative with their mind or with their hands, or both, like writing, drawing, painting, carving, pottery, playing music, taking pictures, even cooking, sewing and knitting or any other personal hobbies they may have; as long as what they do and/or create is existing in a material or physical form, and is not abstract nor virtual. Creativity gives you a sense of self-accomplishment, joy, pride and satisfaction that benefit both your body and mind and instantly make you feel better.
Participating in caritative activities and events with charitable organizations, whose principal objectives are philanthropy and social well-being, might as well as make you feel better, as helping others and being with others, doing good deeds, is also a way to elevate your mind to more positive thoughts and ways of thinking. Being with and doing things with and for others also give you a sense of purpose, ethical values and morals, that will definitely help. And, if it is not enough to cheer you up, the support of family and friends usually helps too...
The difficulties to compartmentalize emotions amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the world instability
...and yet, during this ongoing frantic period of COVID-19 pandemic and tragic world instability, more and more people have difficulties to deal with and handle their emotions, difficulties to compartmentalize and organize their emotions to stay strong when facing an uncertain future. Being confronted with the unknown is definitely unsettling for most of us, and generates an omnipresent sentiment of sadness and helplessness difficult to overcome for many of us.
And, even if those, who are the most affected and have the most difficulties to handle their emotions and the overall situation, wanted to do something for themselves, see and be with others to feel better, heal or lessen their emotions and give back a sense of purpose to their life, how could they do it in this time of social-distancing, curfews and re-confinement due to the recurring surges of the coronavirus?
How could they do it when facing so much uncertainty in the months ahead? How could they do it when their mind is constantly preoccupied with eventual permanent job losses, no more cash, increasing debts, no roof over their heads, no food, no life anymore? How could they do it when they are too affected psychologically, emotionally, physically and even financially by the whole situation to be able to do something about it?
It was already quite difficult for anyone who struggled on a daily basis (whatever the reasons) to handle and compartmentalize their emotions prior to the pandemic (as the world had been struggling in many ways for several years already), yet, with the COVID-19 and the resulting world economy collapsing (including political and societal unrest), "difficult" is not strong enough anymore to describe how dire the situation really is, and in which kind of mental, psychological and financial state most people are now or are about to be in the near future.
The sentiment of sadness and helplessness will continue to grow as long as people will lose their jobs and see "the-life-they-knew" vanishing, to face uncertainty, unrest and solitude (and not much help from most governments). For some, this sentiment might just be temporary, a few weeks, few months maybe... but, for others, it might be permanently as more and more companies are cutting jobs, reducing their headcounts, restructuring if they can, closing for a certain period of time with the hope to reopen at some point soon, or simply closing permanently as they can't afford to stay open any longer, collapsing in debts.
The virus situation (with the help of the media and most government's catastrophic misleading communication and mishandling of the situation, especially in the Western world) has made the whole planet come to a standstill, and humans are as distraught as ants when a kid gives a kick into an ants colony nest hill, disoriented, bewildered, unable to regain consciousness from such a despicable blast... unable to comprehend what just happen as a moment before everything was fine... but that was back in October last year, roughly 12 months ago, when the world was still unaware of what was about to happen... and seemed to still have time... but since then, times have changed...
Times have changed
Times have changed. Things have changed. And people's mentalities, behaviours and comportments too. And not only because of COVID-19... just too many factors to mention them all, so I will only concentrate on the 2 main ones: technologies and communication.
Over the last 2 decades, technologies and the means of communication and information, more especially the media, and more specifically the Social Media, have enhanced, but also transformed and changed forever the ways we communicate with each other, and more significantly, the way we receive, listen or read, perceive and, (more importantly), how we interpret the millions of information and data we are constantly bombarded with on a daily basis.
These information and data are, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, influencing, changing and redirecting our rational judgements, behaviours and attitudes towards ideas and ideologies, already pre-defined and designed by super algorithms and artificial intelligence, supposedly knowing better than you what is good for you, to compartmentalize you into a specific virtual box and vulgarize you into a bar code recognizable by (what will probably soon become a reality) human implementable capsules made of integrated nano-technologies.
Over these last 2 decades, it seems that the best and the worst of the science-fiction of yesterday has become the reality of today. It seems that Humans have dramatically accelerated the pace and that the world has gone crazy. Crazier and faster than anything we have seen or experienced previously. It seems that the first wave of rapid evolution and changes appeared in the early 80s, and the 2nd wave roughly came when the new millennium started, and never stopped to accelerate ever since.
And this acceleration, with all of the changes and consequences it dragged along the way, has clearly taken a psychological and emotional toll on most people around the world, who are now facing more difficulties to handle and deal with their emotions on a daily basis, than ever before.
In this age of advanced technologies and means of communication, people are far more alone, lonely, depressed and more deeply psychologically affected now than they were 40 years ago, for example. Which is quite surprising, as we are constantly connected with smartphones and other electronic devices that can do anything, sometimes even better than computers/laptops and tablets, with access to a plethora of social media, enhanced by incredibly efficient oral, verbal, vocal, written and visual means communication. Thus, you will think that people should communicate more, but no...
Why, because this reality is a fake, an illusion, a virtual world in which people can imagine and create and live within their own reality, unable anymore to recognize or dissociate the real world from the virtual one, and vice versa. By living in their own egoistic, self-centred and egocentric world, people have lost touch with reality, people, their surroundings and the real world. Physically distancing themselves from others and more especially people they care about (family, friends, etc..), while having the virtual impression to be closer than ever before, when what is really happening is actually quite the opposite.
I still remember when we used to write letters or phone people to talk to them, to get some news and gossips and talk about anything and everything. Nowadays, fortunately, "Facebook" remind us of the coming birthdays, otherwise, we wouldn't have a clue when to wish them to others. Quite sad actually. Even "Memes" play the role of reminders to tell us that sometimes we should just write a message (text, SMS, email, or anything else) to our family and friends to say things like "Hey, how are you doing? Is everything ok? I was just thinking of you and wanted to check on you? We should hang out sometime soon. How about tonight or tomorrow?", but we don't anymore... or so rarely...
This situation is due to many various factors and changes that occurred predominantly within the past 4 decades, more particularly due to the rapid improvement of and easier access to technologies and communication in the last 2 decades, which inevitably and unavoidably, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, led us to this uncontrollable path of living our daily routine in a constant and unsettling state of loneliness, mood swings, rush, pressure, competition and competitiveness, as well as fears, doubts, stress, anxiety and worrisome emotions, mindsets, behaviours and comportments.
And the last 10 months of COVID-19 pandemic definitely did not help. On the contrary, it made the situation even worse, much worse than it was prior to the pandemic. In fact, it accelerated and exacerbated the whole situation to the point that the world is now facing its worst economical, financial, political and societal crisis yet, aggravated by the fact that no one really knows or can anticipate what will happen next.
Some are counting on a vaccine coming soon, by the end of this year or by spring next year, maybe, hoping it will resolve everything. Some believe it might take much longer to find a vaccine or even a cure, and therefore we will be forced to live with the virus for a while, (like we do with other viruses like AIDS, Ebola, etc...), with all the consequences and inconveniences that we now know and have witnessed and experienced within the last 10 months.
The numerous solutions and actions that have been put in place over the last 10 months to curb the virus have been physically and psychologically exhausting: confinements, curfews, strict rules and restrictions, social distancing, masks mandatory everywhere, travel distance limited, closed boundaries in-between countries, solitude, stress, distance, sentiments of sadness and unhappiness, etc..
Yet, that said, (and, I know, it is controversial compared to the previous paragraphs, but that's a fact), after nearly a year of this virus situation, living separately due to social distancing and the risk of being infected, people's comportments and behaviours have once again changed, in the sense that, now, more than ever before, people feel the need for concrete and touchable reality instead of this imposed disturbing virtual reality.
They need something real. They want to retrieve their freedom to go out, see people, friends, family, go to the bars, the restaurants, the clubs, have fun, go on dates, have sex, enjoy life, etc... Retrieve a normal life! Be even closer to people than ever before, as the COVID-19 situation has had, at least, that one positive point, to make people realize that virtual was not and will never be the reality, and it will never replace it.
Because who knows really how things will unfold? No one for now... But let's hope the whole situation will change for the better, as for now, things are not pretty out-there...
The total of infected cases is increasing in many countries.
Curfews and re-confinement of some major cities and towns (and/or even regions) have become mandatory again to try to curb the, once again, degrading situation.
Political unrest and civil disorders are becoming the norm in some countries where governments are totally unable to control the situation.
Supposedly "natural" disasters are occurring more frequently in places where they never occurred before (or at least not for decades).
Etc, etc...
Things might turn south and very ugly within the next 6-8 months as people fear, not only the virus but more importantly the recession, jobs loss, lack of cash, lack of food and other needed products, lootings, aggression, violence, murders, riots, gangs and other armed organizations and groups from both sides of the violence and hatred spectrum, enhanced by the ongoing rise of extremism, nationalism, racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia as well as other related intolerances, seen in many countries in the last 5-10 years or so.
Times have changed and not for the better, or so it seems...
Therefore, just to try to analyse and comprehend the situation, without going too heavily into details, let's just go over some of these factors and the dramatic changes they spawned in our everyday life and daily routine.
Technologies
You will agree that technologies are responsible for a large part of the changes that occurred over the past 40 years. Advance technologies, as well as other sectors (Artificial Intelligence, electronic, computing, Big Data, Deep Thinking, robotic, automatisation, miniaturization, etc...), never ceased to improve for the better, transforming the quality of life, communication and care for the better for billions of people around the globe.
Micro-technologies and nanotechnologies, as well as the ever-growing capacity and velocity of execution of microprocessors, the complexity of the super algorithms and the self-learning ability of artificial intelligence, have allowed for mechanical, optical and electronic devices to become smaller, faster, smarter, more efficient, able to handle more tasks and integrate more functions than we could have ever imagined 40 years ago, easing our everyday life at so many levels.
For example, if you look at the "photos collage" I did above, you can see that all these technologies and individual devices, which were fantastic breakthroughs back then in the 80s (e.g. the first personal Computers, Graphical user interface, CDs, Walkmans, VCRs, Camcorders, Video game consoles, Cable television, Answering machines, Cell phones, Portable phones, Fax machines, Minitel, Cassette Tapes, Diskettes, Voice Recorders, etc... ), have all been considerably reduced in sizes and shapes, and are now all reunited and consolidated into one "indispensable" device called the "smartphone" that we, nowadays, use for everything (and probably could not even live without, as we have become so addicted and dependent on it).
Although, things are now much faster, much easier to do and at the tip of our fingers, this improvement came at a price called "automatisation". At first, it sounded good to have computers and machines to help and even replace humans for repetitive tasks and labours that could be automatized to obtain faster, better and more consistent results, more efficiently, initiating a significant increase in production, while lowering costs, charges, and even cancelling the need to pay salaries, thus, generating more revenues and profits.
Yet, the population increased simultaneously, and the human's jobs replaced by machine and computers left a part of the population jobless and unable to retrieve a job for some. Back in the early 80s, American Capitalism was seen as the greatest system to follow, surfing on the wave of unprecedented economic growth, also marking the end of the industrial era which lasted until the late 70s to give place to a new and rather needed technological era.
It is quite striking to think that the major jump in the population growth mostly occurred only over the last 300 years (roughly). As per various serious websites on the subject and the various documents found throughout history about the census of the population, it seems that the earth population grew from about
190 million roughly 2000 years ago, to
about 600 million around 1700
990 million around 1800
1.65 billion in 1900
2 billion in 1928
3 billion in 1960
4 billion in 1975
5 billion in 1987
6 billion in 1999
7 billion in 2011
7.8 billion as of October 2020 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer (****)
That is a massive increase in the population in the last 40 years, from 5 billion in 1987 to 7.8 billion in 2020, that's an addition of about 2.8 billion persons in 33 years, basically in one generation. Which represents roughly 36% of the total world population. That's huge!!!
With these numbers in mind, I think that you're now getting the point I'm trying to make.
Basically, if the total amount of people would have been the same it was 40 years ago, technologies and "automatisation" (robotization, computing, etc...) would have not necessarily been a problem. Yet, understandably, if you cut jobs by replacing humans by machine and computers over a period of 30-40 years, and simultaneously there is a 36% population growth, logically and understandably, even more people than before will be left jobless, with no future expectation and no potential to live a decent life.
Add to that the massive rural exodus that occurred over the last 40 years, as the younger generations of the countryside were fooled by the illusion of making more money and having a better life in the big cities sank in, and you'll realize that, (even if it is not totally because of technologies "Per se", but they still account for a large part of this situation), a lot of people are now living with barely anything, some way below the poverty line, with more and more difficulties to make ends meet. A situation that has tremendously worsen within the last 10 months amid the massive jobs loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
NB: Interestingly enough, nowadays, due to the job situation (jobs loss), the planet situation (pollution, global warming, climate changes, etc...) and the COVID-19 situation (global pandemic and its consequences at all levels), some of the young generations are now considering moving to or even returning to the countryside to adopt a more conservative and sustainable type of life, more nature-oriented with the preservation of the earth in mind, as well as the distanciation from the lure of the big cities. Hoping this movement will continue and expand, as while a lot of people are still looking for a job in the big cities, manual and artisanal jobs in the countryside are heavily recruiting to fulfil the gaps and needs. People of my generation denigrated this type of jobs, let's just hope the younger links will see and realize what we did not, and take these jobs.
The despicable part of the 80s and also one of the signs that people of this planet will never be equal (unless we find a way at some point for that to happen), is that, while most of the western world was experiencing this population and economic growth (the US and Europe), and despite the display of all these new technologies, in some other parts of the world, people were still dying as a consequence of corruption, political unrest, drug, war, dictatures, civil unrest, famine, diseases, epidemic, pandemic, racism, xenophobia and other causes, with barely any help from the western world. It is still true nowadays, except now that situation of struggle and poverty is also present in the western world and pretty much everywhere around the globe.
And, although technologies have helped tremendously along the way during these last 40 years, they have not made things better on all aspects... more especially on the subject of communication...
Communication
***work in progress***
Climate Changes and Global Warming and COVID-19
Let's say that since 2000, the turn of the century and the Millenium at the same time, signs of global warming and climate change patterns have rapidly taken proportions that were not (and could not have been) anticipated to happen or occur for (at least) another 30-50 years or more (as per the scientists and specialists...).
Which always made me wonder how can you be a specialist of something that you can't predict, control or easily study as it is constantly changing and evolving?
At best, you can emit some suppositions and theories based on the conclusions of sterile and disciplined Artificial Intelligence and supercomputers fed with billions of data analyzed by complex algorithms (generated by the likes of "Deep Thinking", "Neural Turing Machine" as well as some other advanced and enhanced human-like adaptability of neural networks).
Yet, if the entered data are wrong or erroneous, the analyses and conclusions of the machine will be wrong too. And that is what happens when you ask a computer program to analyse, model and give a conclusion about what are the probabilities of what could happen in the near future based on what happened over a long period in the past, not over the last 30-40 years only.
Meaning that any events or disasters that occurred prior to the last 30-40 years, on regular cycles, are obsolete and cannot be taken as references anymore. Only the last 30-40 years can be taken as references as they have been marked by unprecedented "natural" and "man-made" (directly or indirectly) events and disasters that did not occur before.
Consequently, recent predictions were automatically erroneous as they were based on previous regular cycles (of 10, 20, 50 or 100 years), showing results with long term occurring probabilities within the next 50 to 100 years ahead maybe. The same analyses made on data comprising the last 30-40 years only are showing very short term occurring probabilities.
That is one of the main reasons why searchers and scientists have revised their data, models, algorithms, estimates and predictions over the last 10 years, as events they predict will not happen for another 50 to 100 years, are occurring much more rapidly, and in the last 10 years, nearly from one year to the next.
Consequently, every year now, searchers, scientists and other specialists are revising their predictions in vain, to the point that it became impossible for them to predict what will really happen, forcing them to watch in dismay a future that is turning gloomier and much darker than expected the previous year.
Each year, global warming and climate changes are getting worst and more obvious, generating more "natural" and "unnatural" (and "unseasonal") disasters, that seem to get stronger and more damaging from one year to the next. It even seems that things accelerated since 2010, and the last few years were really alarming. 2019 was even quite terrible and, so far, 2020 is an absolute disaster.
As per the CDP (Center for Disasters Philanthropy - (**)), the followings are part of a long list (and non-exhaustive and not limited to) of what happened and impacted the world in 2020 (so far):
African Wildfires
Amazon Wildfires
Atlantic Hurricane Season
Beirut Explosion
Earthquakes
Economical Crisis
Financial Crisis
Monsoon Floods
North American Wildfire Season
Political Crisis
Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Societal Crisis
Sudan Flooding
Tropical Storms, Typhoons & Hurricanes
U.S. Civil Unrest
U.S. Southern Border Humanitarian Crisis
U.S. Wildfires
Venezuelan Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis
Yemen Humanitarian Crisis
And, as if all of these above were not enough, we get hit by one of the worst pandemics of all times, the virus SARS-CoV-2 and its disease COVID-19, a new coronavirus, more adaptable and more resilient than any of the other 6 coronaviruses known to affected men.
As per the CDC (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention- (***)), there are 7 types of Coronavirus that affect Humans. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. There are four main sub-groupings of coronaviruses, known as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Human coronaviruses were first identified in the mid-1960s.
The seven coronaviruses that can infect people are:
Common human coronaviruses
229E (alpha coronavirus)
NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
OC43 (beta coronavirus)
HKU1 (beta coronavirus)
Other human coronaviruses
MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)
SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)
SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19)
People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1. Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV.
The origin of the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the reasons for how? (and/or why?) it evolved to become so highly transmissible from human to human are still unknown to this day. Searchers and scientists have emitted multiple hypotheses that have not been confirmed yet, even if the genome sequence of the virus has been established and communicated to the world since the end of 2019.
Conclusion
To conclude this rather long post, all I can say is that the virus, the pandemic and the resulting global situation, as well as the mishandling of the situation by most governments and the misleading or even fake information from the Media and Social Media, have not only affected people physically but also mentally, (which I have tried to depict in this post).
The inspiration to write this specific post came from witnessing and assessing my personal the state of mind facing the whole situation, as well as the one I have seen and experienced with some people amongst my family, friends, colleagues and co-workers, taking into consideration the overall general depressed mood looming around most countries of the world since last December 2019.
The world was already a difficult place to live in as it was, prior to the arrival of the virus, but it seems that the virus (as well as the fragile world economy and the obvious lack of handling the situation from most governments and the growing mistrust in the politics and politicians, as well as the ongoing fall of the Democracy in many countries) has intensified the already existing and unavoidable economical, financial, political and societal crisis most countries have been gradually experiencing over the last 5-10 years.
COVID-19 (and/or the governments and media of the richest countries of the western world not being able to face, handle and/or control the situation) has killed the global economy and continues to do so. On the other hand, people's lack of civism, showing poor code of conduct, and even less discipline, disobeying the rules and ignoring certain restrictions, resulted in an increase of the total of infected people in some countries, now re-imposing curfews or even confinement, with stricter rules in an attempt to curb the virus.
Economical and financial crisis means less spending, less business, with people mostly prioritizing on necessary items and products, and consequently, more and more people are losing their jobs. Job loss generating even less spending has also resulted in major companies, store chains, and anything that has to do with leisure and tourism in general (airlines, hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc...) to see their business (revenues and profits) going dramatically down or even disappear from one day to the next, more especially as the business is considerably reduced during curfews and non-existent during confinement periods.
The resulting situation is seriously critical. People can't pay the rent, can't pay the bills, can't pay for food or anything else. People start to rely more and more on ONG and other non-profit and non-governmental associations and organizations to get a little help to survive on a daily basis. We have already seen some looting occurring. People sleeping in their car as they have no other place to go or to queue just to get some food.
People in the US (and other places) are even arming themselves in fear that the worst is yet to come. If people have no money, people will starve and start to fight to get something and/or to protect their family and even their homes. The situation is beyond alarming.
Political and civil unrests are occurring now everywhere. More countries are experiencing protests, riots, abuse, violence and crimes, as well as more drug and alcohol use, and domestic violence too, while racism, antisemitism, nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise.
Lately, even the question of respect of certain religious beliefs and deities is under scrutiny due to the difference of culture, traditions, opinions and views between certain countries of the western world advocating laicism and secularism (i.e. France, where people reported to have no religious belief account for about 40% of the population - atheists) and most countries of the Muslim World where the Islam religion plays an important political, cultural and societal role.
The whole situation is getting out of control and is taking a heavy toll on people... from which many won't be able to rebounce from or even survive. If things continue like this for another 4-6 months to a year, it will surely have irremediable impacts on the world and the population at so many levels.
In a few months, the situation will surely be chaotic and catastrophic than it already is, and the measures taken to regain control will unavoidably be Orwellian. We can already see signs of it with the rise of liberticide and far-right political ideas, parties and movements gaining more support and control while advocating for dictatorship type of politic and governance.
I feel sorry for this world and I'm starting to lose the small amount of faith in humans I had left. And even if I'm hoping for the best and for better days to come ahead for my kids (and all the people of the world)... I cannot help to think that the situation is quite dire and worrisome in so many ways. Let's just hope it is not too late already.
I fear for the result of the American election in a few days and the consequences it will have in the coming weeks or even months, not only in the US but everywhere else too. Unfortunately, and whether we want it or not, this election will decide (or at least will have major implications and repercussions) on the world's mood for the rest of the year 2020 and next year too, and everything else (good or bad) will follow immediately after.
Unfortunately, I fear this election might initiate a series of various irremediable and regrettable events and situations around the world.
As for COVID-19, although I keep my fingers crossed for a vaccine to be discovered and distributed as soon as possible, I would not even be surprised if governments asked people to pay for it when it will be available. This would be the beginning of the end... as people will revolt and strike back... and who knows how things will turn out.
"Any cornered or wounded animal will always turn back and bite!"
The world is now facing the worst economical, financial, political, societal and even religious crisis it has ever seen, and it has nothing to do with COVID-19 (the virus just exacerbated it), it just the result and the consequences of decisions and actions, taken and made long before the pandemic, mostly over the last 150 years (roughly), and how power, money and religions have facetted and ruled the world ever since. The world economy and politic, as well as most republic and democracy, are on the edge of collapsing, proof that our system is somewhat malfunctioning or even broken beyond repair.
Time will tell... but I think that we have now reached a point where we are faced with too many problems to handle at the same time: World crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, Pollution (Air, ground and water), Global Warming, Climate Change(s), Biodiversity loss, Ecosystem and Environmental variability, Warming+acidification+pollution+desalination of the oceans and seas, jeopardized Freedom of expression, religious extremism, racism, antisemitism, far-right and far-left extremism, xenophobia, nationalism, white supremacism, fascism, dictatorship, authoritarianism, and so on and so forth...
Hoping for the best out of this whole situation will be naive, there will be heavy consequences, let's just hope that things will get better at some point soon and not worsen... This is definitely not the future I had envisioned for my kids.
Thank you, and until next time, be and stay safe, and take good care of yourself. And give some love to yourself and to others, coz that's all you've got.
Peace.
Domelgabor
Sources and Links
(*) The original picture for the illustration titled"The Sentiment of Sadness" (by ©Domelgabor 2020) courtesy of the Durango Herald from the article at https://durangoherald.com/articles/258337#slide=0
(***) CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html
(****) Worldometer - World Population - https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
©Domelgabor 2020