Australia has been in lockdown for over a month now, as the most of the world. The novelty of working from home, posting isolation memes has started to wear off and people are getting into trouble with police flaunting the rules of social distancing and isolation. Isolation..think about it, in a developed nation, this is straight out of a zombie movie without people ever realising what they are going through. With economy surely heading to recession, people not sure if they will still have their jobs standing after the crisis is over and simply the fear of uncertainty is slowly dawning in for a lot of us. Is this the time for everyone to rethink how they will live the rest of their lives? Are you forced to think of prioritising and basically recalibrate your career and life as you know of? Well if you have been procrastinating and using lack of time as an excuse, that does not hold water anymore. There are surely opportunities simmering in all industries, areas with everyone staying home and pattern potentially settling in as our habits. As an example, I hear things like if you are looking for a change in IT Online Home schooling is one hot topic that seems to be rising above in discussions. May be it is time to bring out that idea you had to quit your job and start something out of the back burners.

God made heaven and earth, everything else was Made in China, that surely cannot be the case now, for many reasons as demonstrated by recent events. One huge basket holding all your eggs is definitely something you need to think about and resolve. And did the virus actually avert the third world war? Or is it laying seeds for one? Looking at the clearing of pollution, better air quality and cleaner planet, its not all doom and gloom then? Also hasn’t it brought us together, for most of us anyway? Unless unfortunately for those who are stuck with their abusive family, husbands, partners, employers. Or what about God’s cat and mouse game with most intelligent of his creations, game of life and death, I will create new ways to kill you, and see how you dodge the bullet on this one.

What about the macro economy of the world? How will it change the way we do trades, live our lives, consumption, and most importantly heath systems? As we saw clearly what profession is key to our survival. Boris Johnson said he owed his life to the doctors and nurses who looked after him during his ICU stay due to the virus.

We are still going through the tunnel and many say it is just the beginning, we are still navigating the turbulent waters, with virus floating underneath and hiding in the corners, ready to pounce on us or our loved ones, a dooms day, end of the tunnel scenario, but scarily not far fetched anymore given the number of skyrocketing deaths. Governments are trying not to alarm and rock the boat, and have kept the music playing so that no one panics. And we can speculate but may be still too early to know what is going to hit us next at national level, virus mutations or jobs, our mortgages, finances, personal lives and family. As the virus ravages and mutates race is on to find the vaccine, cure. Until then so called quarantine and isolation is just a waiting game, a wave of deaths up and down based on our common sense, to follow rules, to not infect others. We don’t know yet if there is light at the end of the tunnel, there probably is, there has to be, no tunnel can be an eternal horizontal hole, but just in case, yeah, we don’t know what’s waiting at that end, or in the next corner for that matter.

For a split second, a thought crossed my mind, like a sudden brush of cold breeze, could ‘God’ be a brand exploited since ancient times, a psychological exploitation? Thinking about it made me really look into the underbelly of all our belief systems. So let us imagine for a moment a full fledged God industry, totally congruent with what we know as commercialism, marketing, capitalism, socialism, complete with different key players selling their own products, brands, merchandise, offers. Come to Jesus, he is the only one who can rescue you. No, its Shiva and Rama who can do that for you. so follow us! No, it is Allah or Buddha or Mary and so forth.  They all said that, and the humanity is spoilt for choice. They all have their products and offers lined up, well packaged and ready for distribution. They they have their ambassadors, their models, resellers, vendors, debt collectors, promotional events, all carrots and sticks in place better than any company or industry ever known to men. Honesty is taboo, boring and joke as in any commodity line. All of them claim to have same basic elements – humanity, kindness, honesty, truthfulness and so forth. But all the products have the key ingredients highly processed, adulterated, diluted and as a result, very little of that remains in the final version. Instead of shopping malls they have churches, temples, mosques and monasteries. All beautifully built and crafted with very high ceilings, artwork, paintings to attract the devotees, complete with a beautiful model in long white or yellow or vibrantly coloured robes, long beard, beautiful face to draw in the awed and believers. Who thought trade and commercialism are product of recent and modern capitalism? We had it embedded, alive and kicking into our societies from long time ago, an awakening. Not only they take care of your needs in this life, even the post mortem is planned and insured, you will go to the gates of hell or into the arms of your long bearded handsome saviour based on their own criteria. What could be more advanced? The only requirement is you have to close your eyes of wisdom, you have to ‘trust’ and ‘believe’ them. Its like buying from a high end supermarket, the product is so candidly presented, wrapped up in such unescapable attraction, you close down your eyes of common sense, you basically lose yourself, give in, surrender. You don’t want to open your eyes, they would forbid it! They will tell you you need to have a total and unquestioned belief, in other words, be dumb, can not question anything they preach. And you oblige, because you don’t have to think, you don’t have to lead. You only have to be a part of the herd and follow,  easy and delivered to you on a platter. No need to open your eyes and try to make your own path.

And they can be proper tools to advance other causes, increase your influence, territory, impose your culture onto others, ensalve entire countries and civilizations, like East India company did to Indian subcontinent, like the mercenaries did to Indonesia and other parts of South East Asia, Africa, South America, North America. It was never only the product that could satisfy masses’ search for belonging, fear and obsession, it was a crusade, a religious duty to spread words of your God and in the process trample whoever comes in the way, colonise and brutalize, all valid, in the names of heaven.Yet the brand is so attractive and the beauty of the God figure is so hypnotising, the same enslaved ones do not have any problem joining the fan club, and become fanatical supporters. In short, brainwashed with brand loyalty to the point they are oblivious to their brand ambassadors and promoters committing most heinous of crimes like child sexual abuse, promote killing of women for perceived minor of offences, or crushing of your own culture and language, roots. Who cares where the iPhone is made or who made it as long as I can have it!