They have been around since the outbreak of COVID-19, but now it seems they have morphed into something quite bizarre. People held Corona Parties, aka, “lock-down parties,” all over the world: In the United States, Australia, Belgium, Estonia, and many other countries, young people seem to be rebelling the way young people always do, by disobeying the rules.
But lately, it seems as though people are going to these parties deliberately in order to become infected with the virus. They hang around people who have tested positive or are already showing symptoms and compete for money at catching the virus.
But money isn’t the issue here, it’s the defiance. And it’s not even defiance against the authorities, as such; it’s defiance against any boundaries! People, especially young people, are wanting more and more to break the boundaries and free themselves. They are becoming unruly because the rules make them feel fettered, and they want out.
I see this as a very important and positive sign. It is a sign that people want to emerge from the perception of the world they were born into and acquire a new perception, a world without borders, orders, or limitations. What they don’t know, however, is that the world they are looking for exists only above the ego. As long as they are led by their egos, they will keep falling into the same trap of trying to escape one way, discovering it’s done them only harm, then trying to escape another way, only to discover that the new way has failed them, too.
I feel for them, I sympathize with them, and I only wish that they would discover that all they need to do in order to break the shackles of reality is think of one another and not about themselves. It is in the other that they will find a boundless world; it is in thinking about other people that they will discover a fertile soil to cultivate and express themselves freely. Only in giving can one derive strength from the work itself, and only in giving can one express oneself to the fullest.
We are at a precarious time in our history. Millennials will not stand idly by and be led; they are active, intelligent, and inquisitive, and we must provide answers about where the world is heading. If we don’t teach them how to experience the shift—that the world has become one unit, that everything we do affects everyone, that we are dependent on each other for our lives, our health, our wealth, and our happiness, and that we can’t achieve anything unless we work together, if we don’t show them all that, their curiosity will become frustration, then anger, and then violence. It is already beginning to happen; we haven’t any time to waste. From here we can either rise to the very top, or fall to the very bottom.