“
We knew how to combine our strengths in order to overcome our weaknesses, and how to live off faith when nothing else was available.
”
”
Aberjhani (Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind)
“
Individuals reduced to the panic of mere survival are ideal subjects for the introduction of authoritarian power.
”
”
Slavoj Žižek (Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World)
“
The power of biological weapons is ten times more than the nuclear power. Unless we act fast with an open mind, any one of them can extinct the human race.
”
”
Amit Ray (Nuclear Weapons Free World - Peace on the Earth)
“
My intuition is on point. If something feels off, it’s off. If you’re not as nice as you pretend to be, you better believe I’ll sense it. I’m like a human lie detector. My no bullshit tolerance level is high. If 2020 has taught me anything it’s acceptance, patience and survival.
”
”
JefaWild
“
The irony is that people are surviving lockdown thanks to the arts. For centuries, the task of washing clothes has been made more bearable by singing.
”
”
Ilan Stavans (And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic)
“
Isolation is survival.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
If the choice is dying from COVID-19 or surviving by wearing a hazmat suit, a gas mask and goggles to the shops, I choose the latter.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
Negative thinking and negative emotions have their importance: they sharpen your focus on dangers, threats, and vulnerabilities. This is critical for our survival.
”
”
Abhishek Ratna (small wins BIG SUCCESS: A handbook for exemplary success in post Covid19 Outbreak Era)
“
COVID-19 is the third deadly human coronavirus to emerge since the turn of the century. Emerge from where? Where do new infectious diseases come from? All human viral infections are believed to originate in animals.9
”
”
Michael Greger (How to Survive a Pandemic)
“
In this time of Covid-19 I feel an overwhelming exhilaration every morning that I have survived to see another day, and on Monday mornings that feeling of elation endows me with colorful words to express my gratitude to God for his gift of life.
”
”
Fidelis O. Mkparu, 2020
“
By choosing reading you’ve chosen one of the best ways to reduce stress. It was found to be 68 per cent better at reducing stress levels than listening to music, 300 per cent better than going for a walk and 700 per cent more than playing video games22
”
”
John Hudson (How to Survive a Pandemic: Life Lessons for Coping with Covid-19)
“
Although there have been documented reports of SARS-CoV escaping from laboratories,68 the fact that the COVID-19 coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was optimized for binding to human cells in a novel way suggests that the new pandemic we now face is a product of natural selection.
”
”
Michael Greger (How to Survive a Pandemic)
“
In times of hard times, we learn something incredibly precious: The fist of the universe can hit us anywhere anytime; make your preparation before the universe attacks you! In this universe, those who anticipate the thoughts and actions of the universe beforehand will survive!
”
”
Mehmet Murat ildan
“
How will this expanded role of governments manifest itself? A significant element of new “bigger” government is already in place with the vastly increased and quasi-immediate government control of the economy. As detailed in Chapter 1, public economic intervention has happened very quickly and on an unprecedented scale. In April 2020, just as the pandemic began to engulf the world, governments across the globe had announced stimulus programmes amounting to several trillion dollars, as if eight or nine Marshall Plans had been put into place almost simultaneously to support the basic needs of the poorest people, preserve jobs whenever possible and help businesses to survive.
”
”
Klaus Schwab (COVID-19: The Great Reset)
“
becomes dangerous and is closely tied to sepsis. A sepsis treatment protocol developed by Dr. Paul Marik, which involves intravenous vitamin C with hydrocortisone and thiamine (vitamin B1), has been shown to dramatically improve chances of survival in sepsis cases. If you suspect that you or a loved one may have sepsis, visit mercola.com and search for the article titled “Vitamin C, B1 and Hydrocortisone Dramatically Reduce Mortality from Sepsis.” It could save your or their life.
”
”
Joseph Mercola (The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing The Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal)
“
The reserves of emotion pent up during those many months when for everybody the flame of life burned low were being recklessly squandered to celebrate this, the red-letter day of their survival. Tomorrow real life would begin again, with its restrictions. But for the moment people in very different walks of life were rubbing shoulders, fraternizing. The leveling-out that death’s imminence had failed in practice to accomplish was realized at last, for a few gay hours, in the rapture of escape.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Plague)
“
Some people compared the Trumpian response to COVID-19 to the Soviet government’s response to the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. For once, such a comparison was not far-fetched. The people most at risk were denied necessary, potentially lifesaving information, and this was the government’s failure; there was rumor and fear on the one hand and dangerous oblivion on the other. And, of course, there was unconscionable, preventable tragedy. To be sure, Americans in 2020 had vastly more access to information than did Soviet citizens in 1986. But the Trump administration shared two key features with the Soviet government: utter disregard for human life and a monomaniacal focus on pleasing the leader, to make him appear unerring and all-powerful. These are the features of autocratic leadership.
”
”
Masha Gessen (Surviving Autocracy)
“
In the introduction, I wrote that COVID had started a war, and nobody won. Let me amend that. Technology won, specifically, the makers of disruptive new technologies and all those who benefit from them. Before the pandemic, American politicians were shaking their fists at the country’s leading tech companies. Republicans insisted that new media was as hopelessly biased against them as traditional media, and they demanded action. Democrats warned that tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Alphabet, and Netflix had amassed too much market (and therefore political) power, that citizens had lost control of how these companies use the data they generate, and that the companies should therefore be broken into smaller, less dangerous pieces. European governments led a so-called techlash against the American tech powerhouses, which they accused of violating their customers’ privacy.
COVID didn’t put an end to any of these criticisms, but it reminded policymakers and citizens alike just how indispensable digital technologies have become. Companies survived the pandemic only by allowing wired workers to log in from home. Consumers avoided possible infection by shopping online. Specially made drones helped deliver lifesaving medicine in rich and poor countries alike. Advances in telemedicine helped scientists and doctors understand and fight the virus. Artificial intelligence helped hospitals predict how many beds and ventilators they would need at any one time. A spike in Google searches using phrases that included specific symptoms helped health officials detect outbreaks in places where doctors and hospitals are few and far between. AI played a crucial role in vaccine development by absorbing all available medical literature to identify links between the genetic properties of the virus and the chemical composition and effects of existing drugs.
”
”
Ian Bremmer (The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – and Our Response – Will Change the World)
“
If u want ppl 2 deliver u groceries & goods but don't want to hold the corporations they work for accountable for PPE, thriving wages, hazard pay, & taxes, you're exploiting cheap labor for your own safety. We won't survive on exploitation. We only survive through solidarity.
(4/1/2020 on Twitter)
”
”
Nikkita Oliver
“
Droplets, being on the larger side, typically contain more virus than an aerosol, which makes them a better mechanism for transmission. On the other hand, because they’re relatively heavy, they don’t make it more than a few feet from your mouth or nose before falling to the ground.
The surface that a droplet lands on becomes what’s called a fomite, and how long the fomite is able to transmit the virus depends on several factors, including the type of pathogen and whether you sneezed or coughed it out (in which case it’s more protected because it’s covered in your mucus). Studies show that even though the COVID virus may be able to survive for a few hours, or even days, it’s quite rare for people to get sick from touching a contaminated surface. In fact, even if someone does happen to touch a fomite, the chances that the person will get infected are less than 1 in 10,000.
”
”
Bill Gates (How to Prevent the Next Pandemic)
“
But my husband and I were not reassured by the Nurse Ratched–type comforting language, and we were astonished at Governor Cuomo’s dicta. Since we had both lived in war zones and conflict areas, we knew that commerce was never closed, even in the worst crises. People needed to keep making their livings in order to survive the crisis, and the economy needed to be sustained in order for the community to survive the crisis.
”
”
Naomi Wolf (The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, COVID-19 and The War Against the Human)
“
To survive is to face the truth that man made this extinction.
Survival and grief are too often felt together.
How do we live in a world without the millions who died in the pandemic?
How do we live in the same world with those responsible for the loss of so many of us?
”
”
Belle Townsend (Push and Pull)
“
We forget we are making history whether or not we think we are worthy of being remembered.
We are here.
History books are always being written.
The flood is here, and there are countless lifeless bodies in the current.
The flood does not give a shit. It just floods.
Every day there is a new strain, a new disaster, or a new reason to stop fighting. Still,
we are here.
Fighting to survive is not new.
But, let us not forget
that evolution has
always
been a function of extinction.
Life must go on, somehow.
Overwhelming loss suffocates us just as much as the pollution.
But, every time there is another reason to not fight,
we must remember:
Those of us who fight the hardest,
who evolve despite,
are those of us
who shape the backbones
of those who are to follow us.
”
”
Belle Townsend (Push and Pull)
“
I don’t want to assist you in making money nor even more importantly, survive long enough to reproduce more like you.
”
”
Ken McCarthy (Unraveling the CoVid Con: The 2020-2022 Blog Posts of Ken McCarthy - How One Marketer Exposed The Truth When It Mattered (Medical System Corruption))
“
I had been researching high altitude diseases and their links to COVID-19, as both conditions are linked through hypoxia, also known as oxygen starvation or asphyxia. As the COVID-19 pandemic was progressing, more information was coming out about a debilitating condition called “Long COVID”. In particular, the damage it was wreaking on the kidneys. The lungs were typically the most damaged organ in surviving COVID-19 patients, followed by the kidneys.
”
”
Steven Magee (Magee’s Disease)
“
The television networks would broadcast these sessions live; the newspapers would report on them, and Trump’s other coronavirus-related pronouncements, as though they were the stuff of an intelligible presidency, with positions, principles, and a strategy. As a result, even as hospitals across the country buckled, people died, and the economy tanked, more than half of all Americans claimed to approve of Trump’s response to the pandemic. Some people compared the Trumpian response to COVID-19 to the Soviet government’s response to the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986.
”
”
Masha Gessen (Surviving Autocracy)
“
If the human race survives, a group of archeologists will someday discover a circle of the tools I’ve launched into the air in frustration. They’ll conclude that a small cult called "the Tool Hurlers" once occupied this ground. I've learned to leave skilled work to young men. Muscular types with tool belts and tattoos, and a barely concealed disdain for the tottering old fool who doesn't realize a simple clockwise twist of an 11/16ths deep socket wrench would have fixed the problem. I do actually own that wrench, but I use it for slide guitar.
”
”
Garnet Rogers (6 Crows Gold)
“
This was a massive government failure. Individual people shouldn’t be tasked with keeping me safe. I pay a government to do that. Instead, the government used my money to let a million people die from COVID and increase the military budget to kill more people in different parts of the world.
”
”
Madeline Pendleton (I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn About Money)
“
The Annals of Dermatology and Venereology reported that in a French nursing home, all 69 residents—average age 90—and 52 staff survived a COVID-19 outbreak.16,17 As it turns out, they had all taken ivermectin for a scabies infestation. COVID decimated the surrounding community, but only seven elder home residents and four staff were affected, and all had mild illness. None required oxygen or hospitalization.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
despite this fauxcebo chicanery, Dr. Fauci’s researchers just couldn’t get remdesivir to show any improvement in COVID survival.37
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
COVID-19 was my most feared enemy that could potentially kill me. I was vaccinated, developed a supplementing protocol for it and survived a COVID-19 infection. I now view it as a mild case of the flu.
”
”
Steven Magee
“
A rural neighborhood popped up fairly close by, but even those houses are abandoned now. Some people just can’t survive a pandemic when all the bailout money goes to greedy banks and corporate shitboxes. You can thank covid-19 and our corrupt government for the foreclosed homes that sit nearby.
”
”
C.M. Stunich (Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys, #4))
“
To survive something that so many people have died from can have a mental effect on you. It can make you feel a sense of urgency to be more responsible with the life you have left.
”
”
Deion Campbell (Ventilator : A Covid-19 Survivor Story)
“
Our soul is given the innate and strong ability to differentiate right from wrong actions. We have likeness for and the wish to see fairness, justice, honesty, truthfulness and cooperation in the universe where species survive on survival instincts. These values reflect in our art, prose and poetry. If the feelings, emotions, aesthetics, values and morality are merely a chemical mixture, then our labs shall be producing Shakespeare, Rumi, Iqbal and Picasso just through chemistry experiments without any human intervention, instruction and programming.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
As humans, when we look into our inner self, we find that we also have survival instincts like animals. But, we also have conscience to differentiate right from wrong. Our brains have memories, emotions and intellect to go beyond physical reality and find answers. Our aesthetic sense likes beauty, art, culture and nature. We also have the ability to use matter for our convenience in making objects bigger and powerful than us so as to make us transcend our physical limits. Science has facilitated us to use matter in useful ways. However, as stated before, we also have conscience. We have inherent morals and values. Religion speaks to our soul and asks us to purify our inner soul as well as ensure that our physical self is also pure, clean and peaceful while engaging with our outer environment where we meet people and nature.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
A human child requires nourishment and care to sustain itself. This experience of being dependent for our survival needs gives us a chance to not forget our fallibility and weaknesses despite our strengths and superior ability in youth. Sometimes, a virus creates havoc in our routine life. It makes us understand that despite having consciousness, superior intellect and accumulated knowledge passed over from generations to generations, we are still fallible and vulnerable. We are not God nor can we be. Pandemics and natural calamities invite us to ponder that if life is going to end from one reason or the other, then what is the purpose and meaning of life. If we have been created by the Ultimate Creator, then what is the purpose defined for our lives. The purpose of life defined by religion is not constraining when we look at life in far future. We have this ability to reflect on the far future. Good morals and virtuous lives using our free will can enable us to achieve what we want to achieve in this world without success, i.e. everlasting life, peace of mind, no regrets of past, no vulnerabilities and no constraints of nature. It is up to us whether we look into the far future for which we have the ability or succumb to our survival instincts and perish as another life-form.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
Actions Summary The following list of new institutions, policies and actions is my best effort at envisaging what is required for Australia to survive the climate emergency. • A National Target and Plan for 95% or more of electricity to be supplied by renewables by 2030. • State plans to electrify all transport, beginning with the swift retirement of non-electric buses and including a plan for 50% of all new car sales to be EVs by 2030. • Implement planned changes to how we work and live so as to minimise unnecessary travel. • A plan for clean hydrogen to replace bunker fuel in shipping. • A plan for the adoption of e-fuels for aviation, with an aim to have all domestic flights running on e-fuel by 2030. • A National Commission for Climate Adaptation, with a Coastal Defence Fund and a Commission for Primary Production operating under its umbrella. • A National Initiative on Drawdown Innovation to provide leadership in early stage research and fund some on-ground projects. • The Federal Government to help convene a Global Working Group on Geoengineering.
”
”
Tim Flannery (The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19)
“
The trio—none of whom ever treated a COVID patient—adopted controversial strategies to confine the nation under house arrest, shut down the global economy, deny the public access to early treatment and lifesaving therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, excite persistent public terror through the broadcasts of deliberately exaggerated death and case counts, and repeatedly tell the world that “the only path back to normal is a miraculous vaccine.” With minimal scientific support, they imposed draconian quarantine, mask, and social-distancing mandates, purposefully or accidentally inducing a species of mass psychosis called “Stockholm syndrome” wherein hostages become grateful to their captors convinced that the only path to survival is unquestioning obedience.
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
COVID-19 separated families across the world. Important events like weddings, baptisms, and reunions were cancelled. Even the way we grieve has changed. We lost friends and relatives not to COVID-19, but due to illnesses. We huddled together and cried. Then we dried our tears, hoping that we would grieve the passing of our loved ones properly. There is always a time for that. Not today. We are still learning the ropes of surviving the pandemic.
”
”
Jenny Ortuoste (In Certain Seasons: Mothers Write in the Time of COVID)
“
The United States is on the precipice of losing its cherished freedoms, with censorship and cancellation of all those who bring views forward that differ from the “accepted mainstream.” It is not clear if our democracy, with its defining freedoms, will fully recover, even after we survive the pandemic itself. But it is clear that people must step up—meaning speak up, as we are allowed, as we are expected to do in free societies—or it has no chance. In 1841, Charles Mackay presciently spoke about the herd mentality: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one
”
”
Scott W. Atlas (A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America)
“
In my discipline, we affectionately refer to this sort of box (culture) as a zeitgeist, which literally translates to 'time ghost.' Unfortunately for any of you expecting spooky surprises, a zeitgeist doesn't refer to a literal ghost but is better understood as the 'spirit of the age,' although even this doesn't quite pin down its meaning. Think of any stereotype of any decade in the last century-from the Roaring Twenties, Flower Power of the sixties-any of these could certainly be said to illustrate the zeitgeist of that era. But zeitgeists can also be more specific than this, and its the SSDC that ends up developing a decent portion our zeitgeists, the sorts of zeitgeists that can be doubly hard to see outside of because they define more than just lifestyle practices. They define everything we think we know about our collective identities and our collective realities.
Of relevance here is the zeitgeist of 'I know best about my body.' It's a lesson we teach people from almost before they can talk: 'You know your body,' 'Listen to your body,' and so forth. And while these are great truisms to teach our children about consent and empowerment as they grow older, they do come with blinders as they become our culture's zeitgeist. How can we really expect people to do a 180 on this logic all of a sudden in 2021?...It would be more productive of us to ask the broad cultural reasons that people resist such mandates, rather than scolding individuals for not conforming. Only then, I think, can we slowly begin to change our collective zeitgeists to those that encourage ownership and empowerment of our own bodies and also add in a healthy dose of 'Sometimes the body is silent' or 'Trust one's own body in collaboration with trusted experts' or something of the like. Ironically enough, the very denial of any shared realities that I mentioned in Lesson 20 is its own zeitgeist that has been gaining momentum for the last five years or so. I worry that this only allows the virus-or any other pathogen in our future-a foothold. Our divisions are their smorgasbord. How can we plan and strategize if we can't agree that we need to plan or strategize to begin with? This is one of the biggest hurdles we'll need to overcome to ensure humanity's long-term survival. It's possibly one of the most terrifying threats to humanity that I've seen in my lifetime-for if our only shared belief is that there is not shared beliefs, where do we go from there?
”
”
Kari Nixon (Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19: What Pandemics Teach Us About Parenting, Work, Life, and Communities from the 1700s to Today)
“
If your economy requires a river of human blood to survive, consider instead that it’s already broken.
”
”
Cassandra Alexander (Year of the Nurse: A Covid-19 Pandemic Memoir)
“
My friend, if your economy requires a hundred thousand PREVENTABLE DEATHS to survive... it’s already broken. Defund the military a little or tax Bezos more or some shit—figure it out. Because what we’re going to have for the next few months is in no way shape or form going to resemble the type of “economy!” we all need in order to be a functioning society.
”
”
Cassandra Alexander (Year of the Nurse: A Covid-19 Pandemic Memoir)
“
It’s true that between March 2020 and August 2020, what would have taken five years to accelerate to digital occurred in five months of COVID
”
”
R "Ray" Wang (Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Surviving and Thriving in a World of Digital Giants)
“
In the United States, heart disease has been the leading cause of death every year since 1900, with the exception of 1918 when pandemic flu ruled the roost.41 (In contrast, as I detail in How to Survive a Pandemic, COVID only made it to number three.42
”
”
Michael Greger (How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older)
“
I do have an interest in dissidents. My mother believes 5G may harm us, and I think she’s silly. But what of the nonconformist who warned back in 1940 that cigarettes kill? What of the contrarian who said the CIA was spying on Martin Luther King, Jr.? I mean, I’ve seen no evidence that 5G or the Covid vaccines are harmful. But have I done that research myself? No. I just trust the media would tell me if they were. My media. Whatever media my mom is consuming, they’re quoting “research, studies.” They’re slinging medical articles and YouTube videos of doctors saying that mRNA vaccines kill. A month before our road trip, she sent me one of these videos. It’s a clip of a longer talk, but even the clip is twelve minutes long. “Something to consider,” she wrote in the subject line. “Doctor calls out deadly vaccine!” Twelve minutes is annoyingly long for something I instinctively discredit, but short enough to give it a go. So I do. It’s a doctor on a stage with a PowerPoint. He has studies and graphs and lists of ingredients in tiny fonts and words like “embryonic stem cells.” I write my mom a long response. “OK I’m six minutes in and here are my thoughts: he’s using a lot of technical science speak that is above my pay grade. And so, what I’m doing is I’m trusting the lingo of an expert.
”
”
Jedidiah Jenkins (Mother, Nature: A 5,000-Mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences)
“
Dizziness hit Chen Nan. She had never taken a single risk in her life, and she was certain she had made the right decisions needed to survive in the COVID era. However, when she thought of Garcia in his sickbed, she was stricken by guilt. Perhaps I have only been exploiting his love, and giving little to none in return, she thought. Even a simple I love you was difficult for her, because she was afraid that once she said those magic words, the dynamics of the relationship would change, making her the weaker one, the vulnerable one, the one who cared more.
”
”
Kai-Fu Lee (AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future)
“
The goal of all animals is to survive for as long as possible, at least until they reproduce. In the animal world, everyone is both prey and predator. Yes, even we, the Homo sapiens. How are we prey? Remember COVID-19?
”
”
Pulak Prasad (What I Learned About Investing from Darwin)
“
In the absence of an outbreak like Covid-19, where even Schnorr had no choice but to be belligerent with the Purell, she generally doesn’t disinfect her home or hands. “I abhor sanitizer,” she said. “And, trust me, you’re going to survive if you don’t shower. In fact, it can be beneficial.
”
”
Michael Easter (The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self)
“
Let everything that has breath praise God. We have not only survived but strived in the COVID-19 situation.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita
“
It is a conflict between man and his parasites27 which, in a constant environment, would tend to result in a virtual equilibrium, a climax state, in which both species would survive indefinitely. Man, however, lives in an environment constantly being changed by his own activities, and few of his diseases have attained such an equilibrium.
”
”
David Quammen (Spillover: the powerful, prescient book that predicted the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.)
“
What kind of crazy person is going to donate their COVID-19 survival kit to the hospital?
”
”
Steven Magee
“
To all the communist survivors! If we survived the communist regime, we will survive the Coronavirus/COVID-19!
”
”
Zybejta "Beta" Metani' Marashi
“
COVID-19 is yet another reminder that conservation is not just a luxury for rich countries or a romantic ideal. Our very survival depends on our being better members of the biosphere, our larger community.
”
”
Enric Sala (The Nature of Nature: Why We Need The Wild)
“
Religion concerns primarily with the moral sphere of life. It concerns with the moral conscience and strengthening it to elicit positive actions and behaviour. The developments in technology through modern science are in no way a replacement of moral values. Just like we can survive without sun neither in ancient times nor to this date, the same way religion is also a fundamental part of human society by giving it values and meaningfulness.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
meaning to life and what we and others do in it. Else, in a godless paradigm, it is just a game of survival of the fittest. Animals play it as well as humans with no difference between the two in the godless view of life.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
In fact, we have only speeded up extinction in the last 50 years when the science has been on its peak. Morals do not come from evolutionary biology. Towards that end, it is the depressing story of survival upon survival through destruction upon destruction. No wonder we are now seeing tremendous loss to ecology, environment, bio-diversity and forests after setting aside values and morals.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
A reflective mind will keep in mind the scientific and historical evidence that death is as much a fact as is life. The belief in life hereafter completes the cause and effect puzzle even in moral sphere of life. In life hereafter, everyone will get deterministic reward for intentional acts in this life based on the ability and freedom in the circumstances which one faced in this life, no matter whether rich or poor, white or black, male or female, strong or weak and elite or commoner. That makes life of everyone meaningful rather than a constant struggle of survival in one form of matter to the other form of matter where survival instinct is the only moral code.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
It's okay if you gain extra weight, feel bored, or annoyed all the time. Everything is alright when your survival is at stake. Being alive is more important than being happy.
”
”
Sarvesh Jain
“
One must survive this quarantine without harming mental health, for all we know this could be just the beginning.
”
”
Sarvesh Jain
“
Make some ground rules to survive this. It won’t be easy to spend these much time with your partner, your sibling, and your family members.
”
”
Sarvesh Jain
“
My PhD didn't help anyone surviving this pandemic, but the ability to be kind is timeless.
”
”
Sarvesh Jain
“
We'll survive this together by staying apart. That's the best approach to this pandemic.
”
”
Sarvesh Jain
“
After the lockdown, when markets become less active, the subject of mainstream economics faces another tough ground. There are millions of poor people who do not have work. When lockdown happens, a great many people find resource markets stalled where they used to get income. More than ever, such crises necessitate the flow of resources from the haves to the have-nots. But, frozen goods and resource markets cannot help much, especially the poor and vulnerable people. That is where, pro-social behaviour and beyond-market distribution of resources is necessary. However, mainstream economics treats altruism as ‘impure’. It looks at altruism in the paradigm of pursuing self-interest.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
“
Like animals, humans also have consciousness, but they also have a conscience which gives them the ability to differentiate right from wrong actions. But, why we should adopt right and not wrong actions. Prof. Richard Dawkins said that it is necessary for survival. But, Prof. Dawkins needs to be asked that haven’t we evolved through mutations in the game of survival of the fittest. Rawls said ignorance of the veil shall be a guide to behave in a way so as not to be on the wrong side of someone’s prior irresponsible or unjust action.
But, living in any age, we exist and we do not come back again. In the lottery of who comes first in the world, we have already won and are here. Then, what can motivate preferences to act rightly and avoid wrong actions permanently and as a well-grounded behaviour, norm, and habit? The biggest motivation to act on the call to conscience is when there are deterministic rewards. The concept of deterministic rewards in life hereafter on the criterion of sincerity in virtuous and upright conduct in life by each person according to one’s ability and by each person according to personal circumstances makes every living moment in this life meaningful.
”
”
Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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Corona Virus has once again reminded us that the world at the level of viruses and bacteria may operate on survival instincts alone where survival of the fittest is the only moral code. Human body structure might have evolved to be in the present form, but the Ultimate Creator has given us the human soul and spirit which has consciousness like animals, but also has conscience. To focus attention on consciousness alone is to live with survival instincts and ignore higher morals. To act on goodness suggested by conscience requires looking beyond animal instincts and embrace goodness as a habit and wilful choice. Accountability in life hereafter urges that and promises cause and effect in moral matters.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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We also get food for thought if we look at these life-forms. Reflecting on animals, we can see that they have limitations. They live on instincts and do not have ability to look into distant past and far future. They operate on survival instincts. Should humans be like that and only pay attention to survival and animal instincts? We know from our own introspection that we have a clear and strong moral conscience and free will to choose goodness and evil in our choices. Not only do we have that power of recognition, but a strong urge to see goodness, fairness and justice prevail in society. We never like to be cheated and be dealt unfairly. Even those who act in bad ways, they also recognize the evil acts as bad. Belief in afterlife accountability as included in monotheistic faith solves the puzzle by giving deterministic results for choices done with free will. It completes the cause and effect relation in moral matters. Steven Weinberg once remarked that looking at cosmos; one gets the impression that it is pointless. However, religious worldview makes life of every human being meaningful and purposive with promise of deterministic justice in the life to come.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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A more contemporary example is COVID-19. It’s too soon know the full extent of its impact, but a number of businesses, including retailers, airlines, hotels, universities, and commercial real estate properties, which may have previously considered themselves “unsinkable,” will be “sunk” by a tiny virus. To avoid a similar fate in the future, every business must understand that resilience is often as important as efficiency and profits, and that long-term viability isn’t always defined by financial success—sometimes it is defined by the ability to survive.
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Jack Uldrich (Business As Unusual: A Futurist’s Unorthodox, Unconventional, and Uncomfortable Guide to Doing Business)
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Motivation for moral behaviour and pro-social cooperative response has to come from somewhere else. In poor countries like Pakistan, people with surplus resources are engaging in charity, donations, and volunteering. Empirical evidence in Pakistan in multiple research studies has found that faith is the biggest motivation behind charitable donations and it encapsulates and is associated with other humane motives. This trend is also seen in other parts of the world. But, economics is largely silent and irrelevant when it comes to exchange, allocation and distribution of economic resources outside of markets.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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Having conscience, we despise unfairness, injustice, unkind behaviour, lies, and dishonesty. The life does not seem to be fair. Sometimes, people with bad morals and actions survive, thrive and claim resources, power and fame. In contrast, people with honesty and upright character often struggle, underachieve and remain under-rewarded. Injustice happens to people and even entire nations. If we go by the morals of evolution, it should not bother us if there is extinction of species. However, our soul, which is our true identity, does not remain indifferent to harm, injury, destruction, injustice and unkindness.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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Those scientists who believe in Scientism and hold that the experimental method is the only arbiter in all matters of life need to look no further than the field of economics where the tools and concepts of physics are applied. Even though science cannot be arbiter in morals, defining motives, public policy and politics, but it cannot even be a perfect and sufficient tool in explaining economic behaviour by taking the analogy of animal behaviour which is based on self-interest and survival instincts.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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The Covid-19 pandemic is an effective weapon of mass distraction from big tech’s bad behavior. No news story survives 12 hours while a pandemic coupled with a national display of incompetence renders everything else what it is, less important.
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Scott Galloway (Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity)
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The paradigm of self-interest is neutral between a person’s decision to help others or to not help others. If fear and uncertainty make people more short-sighted, self-centric and engage in hoarding cash, withdrawing from banks, disinvesting their savings in capital markets and buying essential goods in bulk, then there is no drive, urge or impetus that economics can offer to suggest otherwise. It is neutral between these choices and the choice for altruism.
On the other hand, as per physics, we were stardust before and stardust after extinction. As per evolutionary biology, we are one of the millions and millions of species that have earned the right to survive under the sun for a brief period until genetic mutations bury our specie as well. We were born through a fierce and destructive competition and survive until we manage to withstand that competition. While waiting and acting on morals, we should not be here in the first place.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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Faith speaks to the soul and asks us to purify our soul. When faith gives guidelines about body, it is to make sure that the body hosting the soul should become pure by cleanliness and by being non- injurious to others. Even if we have evolved through a physical process to get our current physical form, it does not matter in the faith based worldview since the faith based worldview attributes every creature’s origin and creation to the Ultimate Creator. But, we humans in our current form and nature have been given a strong ability to differentiate right from wrong actions. This ability is not within our chemical composition. We might be having same colonies of bacteria and cells like other animals. This is the chemical description of our body, i.e. the host which embodies the human soul and spirit. The ability to differentiate right from wrong is in our conscience. We like to act in ways that are essentially good and virtuous and dislike acts which are wrong and unjust. Yet, this world is not fair. Belief in afterlife accountability actualizes the cause and effect in moral matters. It will give deterministic results to every act of goodness and every act of evil. That makes life meaningful and purposeful. That enables us to look beyond our survival instincts in organizing life on the basis of moral values of justice, fairness, honesty, sacrifice and cooperation.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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In the Godless worldview, the battle of survival ends with destruction eventually for Corona Virus, bacteria, other unicellular organisms and multi-cellular organisms like animals and humans the same way. Humans having consciousness and conscience may define their personal meaning of life by themselves as to how best to spend few million breaths under the sun in maximizing self-pleasure. But, the life ends without due justice for many people who are killed, robbed and discriminated against and it ends without due punishment for many people who cause these crimes. Some are lucky and some are unlucky in the mortal combat of survival of the fittest.
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Salman Ahmed Shaikh (Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World)
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We are going to lose our jobs, If we don't lose our lives first. To live has become a luxury that many can't afford. It seems like only the rich will survive.
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D.J. Kyos
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The news is filled with uplifting stories of patients who have survived Covid-19 — including my own — but rarely do these narratives cover the long and jagged road to recovery that follows. The World Health Organization has stated that people with “mild” cases can expect recovery to take two weeks, while those with “severe” cases may take up to six weeks to recover, but the distinction between “mild” and “severe” cases is confusing, and many of us are experiencing symptoms for longer.
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Fiona Lowenstein
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The survival of mankind is depending on you voting for the Green Party.
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Steven Magee
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With the arrival of COVID-19, strengthening the immune system is of paramount importance beside Qigong with six healing sounds, and herbal medicine to survive this dreadful viral infection. - page 61, Six healing Qigong sounds
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Ricardo B Serrano
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Come and get me, Covid-19.
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Steven Magee
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None of the world’s leading airlines failed to survive COVID. Yet by 2023, Qantas routinely portrayed its survival of the pandemic as a uniquely Joycean feat, while defining 100 per cent of its operational failures as symptoms of an industry-wide phenomenon. None of that is to trivialise the extraordinary injuries COVID inflicted on Qantas, or Qantas’ decisive efforts to achieve hibernation then manage through oscillating lockdowns. But rather than swallowing Joyce’s post hoc rationalisations offered in 2022 and 2023, I have relied in this book on what he actually said and did in 2020 and 2021.
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Joe Aston (The Chairman's Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out)