TARRYTOWN, New York –The affairs of the world were running as usual; not necessarily right, to a great extent, but as usual. With this world not knowing any better, things were considered normal.
All of a sudden, the world woke up to face a terrible pandemic affecting all.
And now thousands are getting sick and many are dying. With all our advancements, we were not prepared.
Is this the first time? How many times have we been facing life-threatening situations? We faced them in previous centuries, but how come we are facing them again now despite our scientific advancement? (Talking about this pandemic, let us not forget about many other illnesses people are suffering.)
How many times has the world woken up to face terrible wars? It seems that wars and killing never stop. Was there a year during which at least a local war did not occur?
Every year, our “advanced” world faces natural disasters, and often disasters caused by human activities and mistakes: terrorist acts, crimes, and the killing of innocent people by racist, angry, cruel, or mentally ill individuals are a common occurrence in the life of society.
Millions of people in the world are starving and dying from starvation.
We are facing overpopulation which causes starvation (especially in underdeveloped countries, where many kids are born to starve and die) and the easy spread of infections, and is a main contributing factor to environmental problems.
God gave us a beautiful world and enabled us to greatly advance in all areas of knowledge. Perhaps God expects people to reach such a stage of scientific and social development that we will be able to free this world from problems and learn not to cause problems ourselves.
People made unbelievable progress in science and technology. Just think about this when you are simply holding a cell phone in your hands. We are flying into space… It would take a large volume to describe our technological progress.
But at the same time we still did not learn how to run this world so that humanity would have happy, healthy and safe lives.
Ironically, where technological progress starts most of the time is in the development of sophisticated, powerful means of killing and distraction.
If the amount of money spent by every country for military purposes would be spent, for example, for medical research and medical facilities, the world would be ready for any epidemics or pandemics and suffering and death would be prevented.
Today we are hearing on the news that there is shortage of necessary medical equipment (masks, gloves, ventilators, etc.). Is it not ironic? How is it possible in the richest and most advanced country in the world?
The explanation or excuse that it is a previously unknown virus is not worth the paper it is written on. There must be enough of the various equipment in stock, and the country must be ready for any unknown problems.
Epidemics, illnesses, hunger, wars, and natural disasters are painful examples of humanities’ inability to run this beautiful world. The UN is, to a large extent, an impotent organization and, even worse, an organization where countries with reactionary rulers have too much influence.
Not having a strong democratic force organized to run this world is a problem which often makes the people of the world feel hopeless and suffer.
Feeling incapable to handle the world’s problems, people came up with, or were given by God, the idea about a Messiah. Perhaps, as the first step in the coming of the Messiah, God want people to make their best effort towards self-improvement and fixing the world to make it worthy for the Messiah to come.
The world’s leaders, who came to their leadership positions not just out of personal ambitions but out of a noble desire to help people, must find a way to unite and lead this world, not only to progress in science and technology but, very importantly, to social progress with the goal of peace, safety, health and happiness for people.
Our great United States must be in the lead in this efforts.
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Arkady Mamaysky is a mechanical engineer who emigrated directly to the United States from the former Soviet Union in 1979.