Science, Covid-19 and consciousness-raising

Science thrives during complex crises. It admires a riddle, respects a problem, adores a predicament and is perpetually on the lookout for a mysterious phenomenon that it can happily delve into. Science, or rather the scientific method, is the ultimate mirror that can reflect all reality in all its glorious exquisiteness. In a constantly changing, huffing and puffing universe, science not only gauges the rate of that change but also discovers the reasons why this change must occur. It is made of brash inquisitiveness and is driven by the twin-engines of awe and curiosity. It has a symbiotic relationship with reality, which is, more often than not, represented by sheer catastrophes. These catastrophes reconfigure and reinvigorate science; science, in turn, figures them out, giving them a cause-and-effect form that most humans can understand, assimilate, control and transfer to other human brains. We need science to raise our consciousness about the universe.

Covid-19 is also catastrophe. But the brilliant scientific method, a dazzling seven-tiered mechanism, is combating it boldly. The mechanism consists of making an observation, framing questions regarding that observation, conducting research in connection with the observation, designing a hypothesis, performing experiments to test that hypothesis, recording and analysing the data and finally devising a reason-based answer to the original question framed!

More than 380,000 people have been killed worldwide by Covid-19 so far. Calamities routinely disrupt and hurt societies, and science routinely obliterates these calamities. This arrangement raises the consciousness of people about science which makes societies aware of the “naturalness” of natural events and uncovers the causes of these events. Originally popularised by intellectually resourceful feminists in the United States in the 1960s, consciousness-raising is an extraordinary tool which can be used to understand and articulate particular problems. For societies where science has been marginalised, consciousness has become frozen.

The process through which science is combating Covid-19 is also the process that is raising the collective consciousness of many societies. Although, typically these are societies that are unaware of the known gamut of reality owing to lack of knowledge, ascendancy of dogma and denigration of science, apparently many in the UK, the US, Italy, Spain and other developed countries have also not yet become completely conscious of the shenanigans of this planet’s biosphere! Their consciousness is now being raised by science which has revealed that a single disease could affect millions of people without much ado! They have learnt that diseases could be fought collectively and effectively! Science has shown that apparently weird notions and practices like social distancing, quarantine, isolation, immunity, herd immunity, vaccination, pathogenic transmission chains, asymptomatic carriers and protective equipment can help eradicate a communicable disease. Their raised consciousness regarding science and Covid-19 has also made them aware of the chilling fact that ignorance can kill!

The containment and treatment of Covid-19 depends primarily on individual decision-making. Consciousness-raising through science can impact the mental processes that consciously and subconsciously construct individual decision-making matrices. Individuals are often irrational and their cost-benefit analyses regarding a given disease are flawed. Thus, the most effective response to pandemics depends on behavioural insights. Again, consciousness-raising via science can recontextualise the process of making a particular decision.

The inimitable Nassim Nicholas Taleb has argued that most people are sceptical about the wrong things and gullible about the wrong things! Here too, consciousness-raising is pivotal. Think about the laughable shamanism, anecdotal non-sense and destructive policies of Donald Trump regarding Covid-19 and try to appreciate Talib’s truism! Imagine Americans demonstrating fervently in 20 states against restrictions imposed on citizens to prevent the spread of Covid-19! Trump exhibits the workings of a static mind that needs to be lifted from the abyss. Compare his charlatanism to the highly rational approach of Angela Merkel. She has a mind whose consciousness has been raised to impressive heights.

Without the opening and soaring of a mind, would it be possible to defeat Covid-19?

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2020.

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