How Will People a Hundred Years from Now View What We Are Going Through Today?

A hundred years from now, when our descendants read the history of our day, how will they regard everything we are going through in the COVID-19 pandemic? When I think of this question, I seem to see some afternoon a hundred years hence, a thoughtful person sitting on a balcony, basking in the sun, lost in thought about this history from a century ago.

He may wonder: was this really an unavoidable catastrophe? Or a disaster that should never have happened? Or he may wonder: why, in the 2020s, did human society lack solidarity, tolerance, and fellow-feeling? Why were we so foolish that even in the face of disaster we could not join hands? Perhaps he will have a far more objective view of today’s world leaders than people of our own age do, because by then all the powerful and influential figures of today will have returned to dust, and no one need cover up for anyone anymore. Whoever should bear historical responsibility must bear it. We know that no one in the past has ever escaped the verdict of history, and no one in the future will. Likewise, the little people of our era also have their own inescapable responsibility—when an avalanche comes, no snowflake is innocent. The Pandora’s box of plague was opened by all of humanity together; we have drawn too close to wild animals, and while threatening their survival, we are also threatened by them. Everything we do ultimately rebounds upon ourselves.

I have just been rereading Einstein’s “The World as I See It.” In it I see that the problems of his era are very similar to those of ours. In his article “Is Religion Compatible with Science?” Einstein wrote: “Though religion lays down that there should be brotherly love between individuals and groups, the actual picture is more like a battlefield than an orchestra. In economic and political life everywhere the guiding principle is ruthless competition at the expense of one’s own fellow men. This competitive spirit reigns even in schools; it destroys all feeling of human solidarity and cooperation.”

I am not surprised or shocked by any news related to the novel coronavirus, because I know the virus will continue to mutate and keep breaching the line of defense we build; strife does not help humanity solve this common problem we face today. I observe how long it will take humanity to truly join hands against the virus. Humans are not born foolish, nor will they remain foolish forever; when the lesson is deep enough, humanity as a whole will grow wise and, to preserve itself, stop tearing itself apart.

Humans are interesting: we have always been a chain of transmission for all kinds of germs and mental viruses. Once germs and mental viruses spread through a population, they form enormous destructive force, destroying our physical and mental health and shaking the foundation of long-term social stability.

As Einstein said, every one of us living on Earth, materially and spiritually, has received much help from others. So however selfish we are, we ultimately must do some altruistic things to guarantee our own survival.

That is exactly how things stand now: without an altruistic spirit, human transmission and mutation of the virus may continue indefinitely. Without altruism, science and money are useless in the face of plague. Because the virus will, again and again, breach the defenses humanity builds at its weak points, greatly reducing the effect of much of the work we have done. Only when humanity realizes this is there hope of bringing the virus under control. Otherwise, no matter how promptly we learn about new variants, it will be to no avail, because the enemy we face mutates far faster than we imagine.

We live in nature and inevitably become infected with all kinds of germs, some of which become lethal threats. Faced with such lethal threats, we cannot remain unharmed on our own. Only by uniting with our neighbors and sharing all anti-pandemic resources can we bring under control the pathogens threatening human survival. If we remain as tense and confrontational as warring parties on a battlefield, we may never escape our present predicament.