Howdy,
I am pulling my punches a bit with the title, as truly by all accounts 2020 was indeed a very terrible year. However, trying to keep things in perspective… for all the bad things that have happened around the world and in the USA, there is always just as much good happening. With CVD-19 and the USA in particular though, things have been chaotic. Worse than you’ll see on the news, worse than anyone will want to admit, should it shatter the American way of life. Maybe that’s exactly what needs to happen, what this pandemic is telling us in a not so subtle way, that America’s priorities are way out of order… And if that is truly the case, we can only hope to learn from this experience.
I will take the advice of a friend, and propose not just problems on their own however accompanying potential solutions. Will these ideas automatically solve everything? Not likely, however my thought is that it at least gets people thinking about doing something, anything, to make a difference. To no longer look at problems and then look away, rather to be part of the solution.
Problem – Not learning from history, even while being cognizant that history repeats itself.
Solution – Schools/educational curriculum should focus on a ‘Lessons learned’ to accompany each history class. I have always been very bad at history, the facts just don’t stick with me. I do remember reading a lot of text books and finding it interesting, however again just not remembering beyond the school year what I had learned. I believe a few short, succinct bullet points clearly identifying ‘Lessons learned’ for each course of history study would be most helpful. A quick internet search tells me that the 1918 Spanish flu resulted in between 17 million – 100 million deaths globally (exact number is unknown, either way it was catastrophic). This happened only ~100 years ago, and clearly history is repeating itself, however with mitigating factors of advanced science and technology resulting in a somewhat less terrible outcome. Still, I would think humanity should/would/could have learned from the 1918 tragedy. I’m sure I read about the 1918 pandemic back in high school, however certainly did not learn anything from it. What good is the study of history if we are not reflecting on it and applying the lessons learned?
Problem – Complete failure of leadership in the US government.
Solution – Leaders should be elected based on their moral values, integrity, and capacity to demonstrate innovation. Currently politicians are elected based on popularity, public opinion, and questionably based on their actual knowledge and expertise. I think the world would look like an entirely different place if our leaders were selected based on their moral compass, integrity, and moreover their ability to innovate and adapt to the modern world. The US has suffered from a complete lack of leadership in every way possible, and we are all paying the consequences. Position means nothing in the grand scheme of things, integrity is everything. (And innovation helps too).
Problem – Reliance on pharma/biotech to create vaccines for CVD-19 and other diseases, without understanding the root cause.
Solution – Understand and solve for the root cause of the disease. Leave animals alone. This is one I think about a lot, working in biotech. I am fairly certain others don’t even consider the problem statement to be a problem at all. However I would challenge folks to think about how CVD-19 came about. (Purportedly originated from pangolins, which are widely poached for their scales. Others say it came from bats. And finally others just allude to wet markets. At this point nobody seems to actually know or care where the disease came from, it is all about the cure). In each of the aforementioned originations, it is apparent that CVD-19 originated from human slaughter of animals and destruction of habitats. Well, there you go, stop slaughtering animals, leave them alone. Sure that is a big ask, so I wouldn’t expect the world to suddenly go vegan, however if humans could at least stop with the poaching and killing of animals for scales, fur, leather, etc., it would be a good start. To give folks some more context, you may not be aware that vaccines are first tested on animals, in pre-clinical studies (where the animals never survive), prior to the clinical studies in humans. In a nutshell, you have humans destroying animals and their habitats, causing a disease to then be transferred to humans, who then destroy more animals, in order to develop a cure. Yepp…
Problem – Financial insecurity, economic turmoil, and rich getting richer (while the poor get poorer)
Solution – Businesses built upon employee-owned structures, with each employee owning stock in the company. Imagine if every grocery worker, fast food worker, movie theatre custodian, coffee cashier, and on and on had stock in their employer, and were regularly compensated partially in stock. Performance would go up, accountability would increase, retention would increase, people would be motivated to go to work every day and do their very best. In the current CVD-19 environment, there are a lot of people out of work, many others barely making ends meet at their hourly jobs, and then a bunch of corporate folks working remotely. In all three scenarios there are executives with major stock options raking in record profits, and then shareholders also seeing massive gains. Capitalism is not equitable. The folks at the top are the highest rewarded, those at the bottom are squeezed for every ounce of productivity. It has always been this way with capitalism, by definition profits come before people. Demand equity.
Humans are learning creatures which have evolved over many thousands of years. [Basic primitive instincts] – Don’t touch the fire, it’s hot. Don’t go outside your cave, you might get eaten by a wild animal. If it’s freezing cold, wear something to keep you warm. [Evolved thoughts] – Art, music, construction, entertainment. [Further advancements] – Industry, technology, economy, globalization. And so we are always learning, constantly, in even the smallest things there is new perspective, information, and ideas. Learning is infinite.
Part of learning is admitting when things are wrong, when they are not working, when steps may have been skipped. Learning and maturity ideally go hand-in-hand. Bad experiences also go hand-in-hand with learning. Humans did not learn that it is not good to touch fire, by not touching it. Our ancestors did not learn about not going outside the cave at night, without many first making that mistake. They didn’t learn about the importance of keeping warm, until the frostbite became apparent.
Building upon that logic, that bad experiences are the best teachers, 2020 is indeed an incredible opportunity to slow down, reflect, and soak in the learning and growth. The survival of humanity might just depend upon it. 😉
Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and healthy New Year~!
cheers,
Zer0
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