I finished World War Z by Max Brooks yesterday, an insightful critique on modern society. Sure, the book uses the allure of zombies to capture your interest, but that’s not really what it's about. Just take a look at some quotes:

“Oh, c’mon. Can you ever ‘solve’ poverty? Can you ever ‘solve’ crime? Can you ever ‘solve’ disease, unemployment, war, or any other societal herpes? Hell no. All you can hope for is to make them manageable enough to allow people to get on with their lives. That’s not cynicism, that’s maturity. You can’t stop the rain. All you can do is just build a roof that you can hope won’t leak, or at last won’t leak on the people who are gonna vote for you.’”

“Ignorance was the enemy. Lies and superstition, misinformation, disinformation. Sometimes, no information at all. Ignorance killed billions of people.”

“…it means that, in politics, you focus on the needs of your power base. Keep them happy, and they keep you in office.”

“You can blame the politicians, the businessmen, the generals, the ‘machine,’ but really, if you’re looking to blame someone, blame me. I’m the American system, I’m the machine. That’s the price of living in a democracy; we all gotta take the rap. I can see why it took so long for China to finally embrace it, and why Russia just said ‘fuck it’ and went back to whatever they call their system now. Nice to be able to say, ‘Hey, don’t look at me, it’s not my fault.’ Well, it is. It is my fault, and the fault of everyone of my generation.”

“Confidence, it’s the fuel that drives the capitalist machine. Our economy can only ruin if people believe in it; like FDR said, ’The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’”

“Be nice if that was the lesson people took from all this misery. We’re all in this together, so pitch in and do your job.”

“Anyone around the world, anyone you talk to, all of us have this powerful shared experience.”

“I know I come off as a little too optimistic, because I’m sure that as soon as things really get back to ’normal,’ once our kids or grandkids grow up in a peaceful and comfortable world, they’ll probably go right back to being as selfish and narrow-minded and generally shitty to one another as we were. But then again, can what we all went through really just go away? I once heard an African proverb, ‘One cannot cross a river without getting wet.’ I’d like to believe that.”

Wow. Especially now, more than ever, we need to reflect on these statements. We need to reflect on the state of our world. Our society was not harmonious before the outbreak—will we ensure it becomes so when this is done? Will we learn anything from this?

I highly recommend Brooks’ social commentary. To read about a global pandemic during a global pandemic—it really illuminates our focus. We can change the world. Do we want to? Will we take the responsibility upon ourselves? It’s up to us...