On my desk are two, round, pronged seashells, beautiful structures that grow no more, because the living mollusk is no longer dwelling in them. I’d compare that shell to a civilization, and the living mollusk to the people who make up that civilization. As long as the people are balanced – healthy, moral, considerate and generous – the civilization grows. When the spirit leaves them, we are left with ruins, shells.
Western Civilization, all civilizations, have been struck so that they must recoil, step back to see if they have fallen away from survival mode. This coronavirus is a bigger enemy than the flu. The past solutions of friendly mutual aid don’t seem to work with a virus that thrives on contact. Hospitals, an invention of this civilization, are not succeeding as in the past.
Must the mollusk cooperate with its creator? Who ever heard of a mollusk that didn’t? But that creature – Man – has free will! He also can be reasonable.
Civilization 