Between horror and fear, trust and hope, days, weeks and months pass. Our life has been turned upside down. Inequalities are widening, social life is interrupted and the global balance is shaken! Like any great misfortune, the pandemic arouses violent emotions such as fear, sadness and anguish. Anger grips the guts, becomes oppressive. Here, one suppresses one's resentment; there, we cringe, we stamp inside. Suspicion and defiance are everywhere: a muted revolt, born of a feeling of injustice fanned by winds of protest, is bubbling within a youth in the grip of despair. The future remains bleak despite vaccination campaigns and restrictive measures put in place around the world. We fall into uncertainty; depression hovers, mental health takes a hit, making us waver between quarantine, confinement, telework, unemployment and all kinds of threats to our freedoms and the security of our existence. How to get out of this anxiety-provoking flow and not give in to the pangs of discouragement? Would there be reasons to aspire to better days, to future well-being, to a healthier and happier society?

“Impossible! Incredible! Vain words! are already screaming the skeptics and the most vulnerable, victims greatly weakened by the collateral damage of Covid-19. How to achieve self-sacrifice in such a situation? Is there a way out, a window, a perspective? Freedoms were confiscated following an initial confinement; the noose tightens during the second. What does a third confinement portend? Are we going to have to live for a long time with barrier gestures and social distancing? In the name of what ethics?

Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, in a society dominated by questioning and doubt, the normative judgments of yesteryear based on a single moral law are now obsolete. The moral evidences become blurred. We are told about the notion of “saturated morality”. New ethics obeying the laws of “adjustment” and relativity are born with a view to harmonizing the plurality of moral criteria that must be applied in such and such a situation. Should we then redefine the meaning of duty and review the principles of good and evil? And learn to evaluate the human cost, by comparing it to an economic cost or an ethical cost? With the current pandemic, we raise these kinds of questions every day. Around the world, leaders are adjusting their protocols according to the health situation in their respective countries, trying to find a compromise for the well-being of citizens. We appeal to collective intelligence, even altruism; we would like to make solidarity and responsibility rhyme, develop resilience and patience...

Is this the return of forgotten virtues, of archaic values? Should we reconnect with ancient wisdom, re-adapt it to our needs and rediscover an ethic of “connection”? We would then learn to decenter ourselves in order to open up more to others and for others. We would then trade the selfishness and indifference of a world that has become too frenetic, competitive and materialistic for consideration, compassion and sharing in favor of a more benevolent, peaceful and healthy world. Are we going to witness a planetary renaissance, a return to humanity and the construction of new solidarities? Can we imagine new modes of engagement within a changing society and faced with a thousand questions today?

Perhaps it is time to overcome the shock in order to preserve one's own balance and live in harmony with others in this dramatic context.

What if… we learned to tame our vulnerability, to become aware of our limits, to question the value of life as others before us have done since Antiquity to guide their peers in chaotic situations. Even if we are witnessing a bursting of values ​​these days, certain principles seem to have crossed the ages and civilizations, like “eternal truths”. By delivering their thoughts on how to face the unpredictable, Seneca and Marc-Aurèle advocated detachment, courage and contemplation for the appeasement of the soul. It was also necessary to refuse indifference, to defend the most fragile while preserving unfailing human solidarity. Cicero underlined the interest of sharing; According to him, "the interest of all is the common interest". John Donne had taken up this idea of ​​interdependence with his famous theory proclaiming that "no man is an island". Théodore Monod, the committed humanist who had traveled the lands of Africa, reminded us of this universal truth that he shared with Amadou Hampaté Bâ and Tierno Bakar, two great African thinkers. For them, "man and the world are interdependent and man is the guarantor of the balance of creation". Man and nature complement each other. Hubert Reeves, the famous astrophysicist, reminds us of this interdependence between humanity and nature in his latest book entitled La fureur de vivre.

Right now, others are sharing their thoughts on a new way of engaging with society to inspire us with concrete actions that uplift us instead of sinking us. Bruno Latour, sociologist and anthropologist, conducts field surveys on our “modes of existence” to take stock of our current priorities and future changes. Pierre Rabhi, defender of "happy sobriety", and Satish Kumar, with his "relational philosophy", challenge us to act in full awareness in order to be in harmony with ourselves and our environment. Colette Poggi reminds us in a recently published book, La Bhagavad Gîtâ ou l’art d’agir, how Vandana Shiva engages in the world in favor of peace and biodiversity. The philosopher tells us that just like Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King, this feminist activist was inspired by the Bhagavad Gîtâ to “act”. Indeed, we rediscover with her the topicality of this founding text of Hinduism. Colette Poggi sheds light on the message of the Bhagavad Gîtâ which could provide answers to the following question: “how to act when one is immersed in chaos? ". Colette Poggi, scholar of Indian thought and Sanskritist, shows us how Krishna encourages Arjuna to get up and act. During a long dialogue, Krishna reassures Arjuna and explains to him how the interaction between things determines everyone's role. After questioning and descending into the depths of chaos, we are able to regain the lost balance. It is important to reconcile with oneself and with one's environment. The practice of so-called "complete" yoga would then be very useful, combining moral asceticism with physical discipline and right action.

Containment? Recontainment? preventive? Partiel ? Total ? Curfew ? Where are we going ? It may be time to accept this break with the world before and think about acting on our environment so that it becomes benevolent again...

What if… everyone, at their humble level, became aware of their responsibility by meditating on their role in the reconstruction of a devastated world. This is a collective responsibility, everyone's business, politically but also socio-culturally and morally. Everyone could begin an examination of conscience and measure his faculty of endurance in adversity; then he would draw on his inner strength to find new bearings by associating with his peers in order to restore the disturbed balance. Everyone could then best align their own interests and the general interest.

We would change the usual evaluation criteria: today, the parameters of our contemporary societies seem to praise economic performance too much through “calculations”, “returns on investments” and “benefits”.< /p>

What if… we gave things another meaning…