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Instead of being always quick and short in my words, I’m rather a social observer who first prefers to listen to others and who only then is able to delve into more philosophical debates about the topics at hand. That’s exactly what happened with covid-19 pandemia. I´ve tried to pull myself aside and to sense what’s going on and how to go forward from here. And I hope you’d do the same.

In January 2017, I posted the following image (see under) on my Instagram account @systemsthinking. There she was, my then 7-year-old daughter, in an art exhibition at SFMOMA, walking on black sand and balancing on one foot while watching herself from a broken mirror. What a metaphor! And I wrote: “We don’t need better forecasts for the future. We need better citizens of the future.”

When listening to many of our current politicians and decision-makers, and to people around the coffee tables, I get restless and worried. Sad. What happened to solidarity? Who’s in for ethics? And most importantly, have we completely lost our aim for a better, more sophisticated world?

The ways I see it, we are living at times that brings forth several key challenges that have rooted in our society for a very long time. First, we have no longer proper knowledge about our own cultural history and heritage, making us rootless. Second, we have lost sight at seeing things from many different perspectives. Third, we suffer from intellectual laziness which results in lack of information and the narrowness of our expertise. Fourth, with too little attention being given to improving our self-management practices, we fail to see how we face various kinds of biases in our ways of thinking and acting. As a result, we rarely see things as they are, but rather as through our anxieties and selfish aims.

In the picture below, a post I saw this morning on Facebook. I think it was a great illustration and wording of what we are living with right now. Accordingly, what is now needed is the ability to look above – to see in the long term. And not only in terms of building idealistic images of the desired future(s), but in terms of realising how each and everyone of us should have a long look at the mirror: What are my pitfalls – when do I create confrontation with my own actions? How could I be more empathetic towards other people and their opinions? How could I learn from those representing something I dislike? How to be a role model for our youth with more positive and respectful outputs? How could I collaborate with those I usually disregard? Above all, who is the one shaking your jar and why?

What we should do during these times of corona crisis, is not fighting and digging graves to our enemies, but to commit for working together towards the better future we all eventually hope for. This being said, I will take a look at the mirror myself and leave you with a wonderful, empowering African proverb: “An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.”