By Dr. Sawraj Singh

Today, the world is facing the CoronaVirus Pandemic. Newspapers, TV, Radio and all other media as well as the common people, all are talking about this. All countries are taking extraordinary measures to deal with this pandemic. We have not seen a crisis like this in recent history before. Number of deaths can reach hundreds of thousands. Population of the world is close to eight billion (7.8). Even if we lose 800,000 people, that comes to about .01% of the population.                                         

 However, if we look into the history of the previous major epidemics in Europe in the last 500 years then one fact becomes obvious that the mortality in these epidemics was many times higher than this number. For example, some of the plague epidemics killed more than 50% of the population. However, in spite of these major epidemics, Europe made tremendous progress during this period. Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution occurred during this period and Europe became the leading continent of the world.      

The Roman Empire also evolved in Europe. The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires the world has ever seen. However, the Roman Empire completely perished and could never be resurrected. However, the main cause of the decline of the Empire was not any physical calamity, it was the moral decline. It can be safely concluded that the main cause of the decline of the empires and civilizations starting from the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, was ethical and moral decline. Today, the western civilization is in the same situation as the Roman Empire was just before its demise.

However, it is not the corona virus which is responsible for the decline and impending demise of the western civilization, it is the ethical and moral degeneration which is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. CoronaVirus is not the cause of this decline, it is the result of this decline. Capitalism virus is the main culprit. Economism and consumerism of capitalism is responsible for the ethical and moral decline which is leading to the present crisis and impending demise of the western civilization. Capitalist greed and its tendency to maximize its profits have led to the present globalization which lacks any ethical aspect as well as any global perspective. This capitalist globalization has led to too rapid mixing of populations added to this are a large number of illegal immigrants and a large number of homeless people which make it very difficult to control an infection like CoronaVirus.                                                                            

Virus of capitalism has caused the disease called capitalist consumer culture. We can also call it consumerism. This disease has done more damage to the mankind and the world than any other disease has done at any time in history. This has dehumanized people and reduced their existence to mere consumers from human beings. Other diseases damage your body and mind. However, consumerism kills your spirit (soul). America has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. America was also the epicenter of consumerism. In my long stay in America I saw that the Indian people were more susceptible to the capitalism virus than any other group of people. Among the Indian people Punjabis were the most susceptible to this virus. Now I see that the epicenter of consumerism has shifted to Punjab which is being consumed by the imperialist consumer culture.                                                                                          

 Punjab and the Punjabis have become the biggest victims of the imperialist consumer culture and are now leading the world in the fields of cultural loss and erosion of values. Even our appearance has undergone such a change that is unparalleled by any other cultural group in the world. To prove my point you can compare pictures of three generations of an average Jatt family, the leading community among the Punjabis. The grandfather is full bearded and turbaned, the father has trimmed beard and the grandson has a queer hairstyle and is wearing earrings. No other community in the world has undergone such a change in the appearance in the last fifty years. It is not just the appearance our youth has also undergone a tremendous change in its attitude and lifestyle. Once known as very hard working and one of the best farmers in the world, now our farm work is mostly done by the migrant labor from the other states. We were attached to our family and land. However, our youth has become extremely individualistic and lost all attachment to the land and their family bonds have become very weak. All they want is to sell the land and migrate to the western countries.                    

It is not just our youth which has fallen victim to consumerism; our elderly people could not escape the onslaught of consumerism. In our traditional lifestyle there was a concept of gracefully getting old. The elderly gradually withdrew from the worldly affairs and concentrated more on the spiritual aspects of life. They used to spend more time at home and used to recite gurbani or read religious texts. A common site in many homes was an elderly person sitting with a rosary and praying with the beads. Immigration has uprooted our elderly people and made many of them nomadic. They are constantly on the move. It is not uncommon to see some of them spending three months in Canada, three months in Europe, three months in Australia and three months in Punjab.                                                     

When they are in Punjab they do not stay at one place and are moving from a place to place. Their families have given them long lists to buy in Punjab. Shopping is their number one priority and activity. If they can spare some time from shopping then they watch their favorite shows on the T V. In the days before we became victims of consumerism, the elderly people used to show moderation in eating and drinking. This has completely changed. I was very pained to see how our elderly behaved in the flights when I used to fly from America to India. Many elderly males would keep on asking for alcoholic drinks and many elderly females would ask for coke and snacks. When the flight stopped in Asian airport and a new flight for India had to be boarded, there was an overlay of four to five hours. I would spend this time to walk around to help me to digest what I ate in the plane. I would be surprised to see our elderly people eating pranthas which they brought from home. Our young people were stuffing themselves in the restaurants. I wondered did these people not eat enough in the plane. Were these people eating to fill their stomachs or they were eating to fill the spiritual emptiness left by the infection with the capitalism virus?                             

 Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.