Some bright guy, Thomas Hobbes, said without law, life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. An enthusiastic, younger me memorized this sweet quote and doled it out as many times as possible when I wrote my first ever core-law exams, many years ago.
Close your eyes and mentally cross out all the legal enforcements, protections and parastatals in place and you’ll find that it’s not hard to picture such a world. I just did. Imagine flying bottles, smashing cars, bent poles, death squad tattoos and sharp, harmful things. The law of jungle. A modern-day theory of Darwin’s law of natural selection, a real-life experiment of only the fittest surviving. Eat or be eaten. Get all you can, and can all you get. Apocalyptic images. Whew!
As the deadly coronavirus continues to ravage our world, it sometimes feels like we are living in an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic movie. Essentials being hoarded, bubbling cities turning into ghost towns and all of us watching from the safe corners of our rooms as animals take over the streets. Life is already hard enough as it is. Why get worse?
At current count, confirmed cases of the virus have passed 1 million, with over 60,000 deaths. Some theorists insist the virus may have infected over 10 million people globally.
Health officials and professionals on the frontlines are already overwhelmed. Sadly, our guns can do nothing. The world’s military men have taken cover, hiding away like the rest of us. Can’t blame them, what can they do? Real-life heroes draped in white gowns and nose masks are fighting for Earth’s life. Many economies are already edging towards depression. The courts are shut and lawyers like myself are watching the world through the lenses of Google, Twitter and WhatsApp statuses. Global law hangs on by a thread. And what’s worse – rumours of extended lockdowns. Youths unaccustomed to staying at home are starting to lose it. Married couples are digitally filing for divorce (“Sorry babe, I never knew I couldn’t stand seven days back to back with you”). Kids and parents are watching one another cautiously.
But, this isn’t the time to lose your calm. It isn’t the time to lose hold of your mental health, or embrace anxiety – but it calls for deep reflection. At the core of things, when all the chips are down and your mobile phone battery runs out, when your laptop battery dies and you can’t step out because an unseen army is killing in the thousands, what really matters? What stands the test of time when the banking industry and the world’s system fails? I imagine you’re making a mental list. Those items are the essence of your life. The real deal.
