Who are we in times of Corona?

Ubuntu philosophy and Integral Theory: A conversation with Dr. Dumisani Magadlela and Dr. Paddy Pampallis. Ubuntu can guide us into a better future.

In 2019 The Integral African Conference had the title “Doing Human Better”. I met many marvellous people there and later had chats on video with some of them. (see “The Integral African Dialogues“)Now, spontaneously, I met Dr. Paddy Pampallis and Dr. Dumisani Magadlela to talk about the most important event in the present times: The worldwide spreading of the Corona Virus.

As to March 24th, there are still people ignoring and dismissing the danger and therefore they are unwilling to succumb to the drastic measures of protection. I am wondering for their reasons. Is it their financial interest? Do they fear to lose their earnings — which they probably will — and so they walk the egocentric way? Is it the magical belief that they, themselves, won’t die, this time, or never? Young people might think so, but the older ones who are the high risk group, better pay attention.

Moral questions arise: Is it OK to abandon old people to die? Is it OK to sort out people who get medical treatment and those who don’t and therefore, inevitably, die? Will you step up or not, into your personal responsibility for the wellbeing of yourself and others, will you be cautious and take care?

Isn’t there a way to come together as humanity, despite spacial distancing, and support each other as best as we can? — This is possible thanks to technology, let’s be grateful for that instead of playing the rebel for the wrong cause!

The way we are living in this very moment is similar to war times. Thank God we don’t have to fear bombs while being locked in our houses. Now we have the perfect chance to experience — in a much lighter way — what our parents and grandparents had to go through in the past century. Will we finally acknowledge their courage, their endurance, their survival skills which allowed us to be here today? Will we begin to realise what is really important in life and that we were mostly occupied with trifles in the consumerist societies of the past decades?

These and many other thoughts arose in our conversation. We focused on the gifts and benefits of the Corona Virus Pandemic. On all four quadrants of the Wilberian Map you find important aspects for the understanding of the possibilities, but also of the reasons for such a situation to come about.
We all are asked to grow, as individuals, as collectives, in our understanding of the world, and most important: our institutions and our leadership
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Now the chance arises for true change. Now everybody on the planet is concerned directly, personally, and that seems to be the only effective motor to push us humans out of the comfort zone and into change and development. Let’s hope — and work for — the stepping up of everybody everywhere into the next level of development. Then enough people would enter 2nd tier and with that the critical mass would be reached for the quantum leap of consciousness and enlightened leadership.

Videopost special edition for April, 2020

Published first at https://thewisdomfactory.net/dumi-and-paddy/