The war is not over. It has been 4 months since Covid 19 made its presence felt and began decimating human populations and while some countries are relaxing protectionist measures the virus waits.
When I first heard of this new virus in late December in China, which had never been seen before, with no known antidote, I said quietly that it would become a global pandemic. Unfolding developments have seemed surreal and mythical, but this is not a stage set or a movie. This is real time reality. People die.
In 1941 the BBC broadcast of the HG Wells' classic War of the Worlds, depicting an alien invasion of London, sent the public panicking, thinking it was really happening.
"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one he said. And still they come" are lines from the opening of Jeff Wayne's 1978 musical interpretation of the HG Wells' classic.
In 2008 The Day the Earth Stood Still hit cinemas. This remake of the 1951 film was based on a 1940 story, Farewell To The Master, written by Harry Bates. The film starred Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, and John Cleese as Professor Barnhardt. At one point in the narrative their dialogue was pivotal. "It's only on the brink that people find the will to change….only at the precipice that we evolve."
Fools, at their peril, dismiss prophets, visionaries, storytellers, poets, artists and scientists.
This world has been a rowdy playground full of unruly children running a muck while their parents are elsewhere. It seems to me that the global fabric of finance and food, of economics and ecology is flimsy. Now, as a planetary race, we have been halted in our mad quest for riches. We are being shown the fragility of our presumptions and are being asked to reconsider our values and moral compasses.