The coronavirus pandemic is hitting us with unimaginable force, worldwide. We are all confronted with our own powerlessness to an extent that initially caused panic fear in us and now drives us into a blind rage.
Each of us is affected by this pandemic, and each in his own way: Children no longer go to school, and parents suddenly have to take care of “home schooling”. Business people are no longer allowed to pursue their professions, employees lose their jobs or are put on short-time work. Family members are not allowed to see their families and friends are no longer allowed to meet their friends. Everyone is encouraged to limit their contacts, keep their distance and wear masks. Public life comes to a standstill, and so does private life. People run out of money, and so do states. Politicians try to create solutions that often turn out to be inadequate, and even scientists contradict each other.
All of us are suddenly completely overwhelmed. In this excessive demand we are all looking for a reason. “Why is this virus out there, why do I have to wear a mask, why am I not allowed to go to school, to work or to meet my friends?” And most of us, especially in Europe, add: “And who is to blame?”
With this question we enter the end of the world – and its beginning: “Who is to blame?” The simplest minds blame politics. Our politicians are to blame that we can no longer live the way we were used to. But we all know that this is not the definitive answer. There must be something else behind politics. But what?
Why does the coronavirus exist, why does this pandemic exist? This is where the division of society begins to become visible: While the mainstream opinion ultimately gives NO answer, but leaves the answer to science, many people no longer want to come to terms with it. If the reason for this pandemic is ultimately coincidental, then the futility of our entire existence is suddenly felt in the most painful way. And if even scientists do not agree on the answer to this question, then this pointlessness suddenly becomes implausible.
Therefore people go on searching. And they end up with conspiracy theories. “The pandemic cannot be a coincidence!Somebody has to be responsible for it!” So we end up with the mighty people of this world, whatever they are called. And so we inevitably end up with the crucial question:
“Coincidence or Conspiracy?”
Both are wrong. The pandemic is neither a senseless coincidence nor a conscious world conspiracy. It only shows the emptiness that the Enlightenment has left after 250 years. In the course of the last 250 years a wide variety of ideologies have tried to fill this void: Liberalism, communism, national socialism, capitalism and also Islam.
250 years ago, the father of the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, replaced the hackneyed “God” of the Jews and Christians with the objective “thing in itself”. Since then science has tried to grasp this “thing in itself”. The coronavirus pandemic shows that this is not possible, and on principle. Our pandemic is showing it in the most painful way: the ultimate answer to all of our questions is NOT in this world.
It would be the duty of our “religions” to fill this emptiness again.
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Vienna Calling 