Disaster and calamities can be great levelers – no pun intended. If we look back at human history and the way we have progressed over the centuries, it is a known fact that such dire situations unleash whole new creativity and an even more significant spurt in progress in the next few years or decades.

The Black death, revolutions across different countries, the world wars, the cold war, have all resulted in agricultural, technological, and industrial revolutions which have brought humankind to its current stage of progress. If these had not happened, we might have been far behind in terms of what we can do today. This is not to say that such catastrophes are needed – it is just that most of them were unavoidable. And we did not progress because of these situations, but despite these situations.

It is the same as the current pandemic. And humanity will progress despite COVID-19.

Let’s take a look at what has happened in the past and what we can expect in the future.

• There will be a significant spurt in human creativity which will result in more revolutions like the industrial revolution or the technology revolution. Mankind has grown tremendously after world wars precisely because of the need of the hour. Technological improvements were necessitated by the fact that businesses found it hard to exist on the limited resources caused by such disasters. We can expect a similar growth in creativity which will solve many of our current issues.

• Even after the Black Death of the 14th Century, because of the death of millions of workers, businesses and landlords began treating their workers with much more respect for fear that they might leave them for better opportunities. So, employees will be valued more everywhere.

• Employees’ rights, such as limited hours of work, sick leave, vacations, bonuses, and increments will be valued more, and businesses that ensure these rights will never fall short of labor.

• Hopefully, even in communities, there will be less of labelling each other. Racism will cease to exist as people will realize that no race is immune to such calamities. Ignoring our differences and working on our collaborative strengths will be the path to progress.

• The minority of the population which is super-rich will realize that money is not everything – and hopefully will share their immense wealth by working towards the upliftment of their fellowman. This will be a great boon to civilization.

• At one point in time, due to the climate change in Asia, rodents began to flee from the dried-out grasslands to more populated areas, unfortunately spreading disease. Similarly, today we see developed economies facing the brunt of the pandemic. This is a chance for developing countries and poorer countries to progress quickly and help developed countries. Reminds one of the stories of the lion and the mouse, doesn’t it?

• Brexit could see a reversal since everyone has realized that it is better to work together than to isolate ourselves from each other. Working together and collaborating will be the only way to grow in the future.

Thank you for reading this post, should you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.