This world wide virus is making the world slow down, pause, stop. This has never happened before. Contrary to some who are trying to diminish the impact of this gigantic event, I see this as the most disruptive and world changing event since WWII.
I don't know the answers, but I can certainly see the problems - the two main structural defects in America and the world are an economy that produces huge economic disparities in the country, and that produces world wide environmental destruction.
I don't know the solutions, but I am sure that we are not going to return to "normal" - a "normal" that continues these structural deformities.
This gigantic world wide event shows us that we are all connected, whether we like it or not. The virus spreads, first among the poor who can't protect themselves as the wealthy can, and then to all It connects us also, through our seeing the suffering and devastation - it connects us through compassion.
My vision is that this world wide crisis helps us all to open your hearts to care about each other. Which will diminish the greed of the predatory business models. Which will diminish the greed of environmentally destructive business models. Which will create supportive business models that nurture and care for workers. Which will create business models that nurture and restore the environment.
I don’t know what these emerging business models are. But I can dream them. And I can expect them. And I can sincerely hope and pray that the smartest young minds turn from previous generations' focus on getting rich into a focus on taking care of each other, economically and environmentally. Turn to a true prosperity for themselves and for the world and for humanity.
In the '60s the smartest minds went into science and engineering to create the miracle of getting to the moon. And they succeeded.
Then, the smartest minds turned to making huge fortunes, and the Harvard and MIT geniuses went to Wall Street. That has not been a wonderful thing for the country, as it ended up in the financial crash of 2008, ended up in too much economic inequality, ended up in a planet becoming inhospitable for human habitation.
It is time for a fundamental change in goals, in dreams, in destinies, in deciding what matters. I have great faith in today's youth who are facing these realities in ways that we Boomers can't really imagine. I have every expectation that the new world they create will be an answer to the current deformities.
I am not talking about some kind of left wing politics. I am talking about each of us opening our hearts to care about others and the world. And out of that, the predatory destructions of the economics of greed just fade away.
I can dream.....
