It´s April 6th, we are somewhere in the Corona pandemic. How do you experience the situation at the moment?
Good question. Actually, I do not experienced the situation at all, as I'm not really affected by the virus. So, I'm only affected by the effects of the virus. So it's a very virtual situation right now. I'm sitting at home. I'm staying at home. I am social distancing because, I know from news that there is a virus going around, that it's highly infectious and that it might have negative effects on others.
And that's what I'm doing. But I'm not feeling it. I am just seeing a lot of people staying at home. There's no social life. The shops are closed. The bars are close, the cafés are closed. The theatres are closed. Everything is closed. And apparently it's that is the Corona situation. But somehow it feels very surreal because I didn't visit a hospital yet. And I only see pictures from the news. And I didn't have any contact, thank goodness, to the virus yet. So it's a very strange situation. It's like sitting at home and waiting for something to happen and for something to go by. But not having any indication that there is anything going on. It feels very surreal.
Thank you. Is there anything you learn about yourself at the moment or about the society or the city you live in?
Yeah, I'm not sure if I know particularly more because of the virus or lockdown. I already experienced situations where I locked myself down earlier. I'm used to meditation retreats. So being in total silence somewhere in an abandoned place and socially distancing from others is something which I already experienced. And I know how hard it can be for people to have that experience. But that is not an issue to me.
However, dealing with other people, this is kind of interesting. My wife and I visited Japan last year. And Japan has a very different culture from Germany where we live right now. People are much more distant, also physically distant. And this is something which is coming more to our culture now. And it might be hard for us to get accustomed to this kind of new social behaviour.
Two days ago, I had an incident in a supermarket where a guy behind me in the queue started to come closer and closer. And there were marks on the on the on the floor, which indicated how far you have to keep distance from each other. And he is coming nearer and nearer. And I protected my pregnant wife and I put her in front of me to kind of shield her away from him.
And I was getting annoyed and suddenly he wanted to get in touch with me. And he started the conversation by telling us that we are not keeping enough distance from each other – as a joke. And I was like "That´s very funny, but it would be nice if you could keep the distance." Which nearly escalated because he didn't respect my wish to keep physical distance and wanted to argue with me whether I believed in what the government tells us. And I was not in the mood for any conspiracy theories. I just wanted him to respect my boundaries. And these were 1.5 meters.
I think it's hard for us to get accustomed to this new way of interaction, and that physical distance does not have to be social distance.
Physical distance for me is also a sign of caring these days. Of respect. The reason why I'm staying at home is not for myself. I'm not in the risk group so I could have a Corona party and get infected, but I'm not doing it because I don't want the virus to spread. And I want to protect the people who are affected by the virus in our society. The weaker ones.
And I think there is a lot of people who do that right now. And that makes me very happy. And there is a consciousness and and the kind of awareness for that. And that is that is something very beautiful. I like that.
Thank you. I want to invite you to somehow look ahead, to put yourself in a time where we learned to live well with the virus somehow. If you think of that time, what do you want more of and less of in your life? Or is there anything you want more of or less of in your life or in society?
I'm not sure. I mean, there's people who always want to transform everything and change everything and to see the wind of change blowing. I have my ideals, but those ideals didn't change because of the virus. The virus might be a good situation to stay close to one's ideals and to one's values and bring them into the world. But why do you need the virus for that? I mean, you can change the world anytime. But it does not need a virus or any kind of violence to change the world. The change starts with oneself and yourself living the truth you think is good for the world.
And I'm always getting more and more away from imposing rules on others. It is more around the question: How can we as a society leave in respect of each other?
And I just recently read a nice article by Yuval Harari. He wrote in the Financial Times about the chronic crisis and how governments are dealing with the crisis. And what I took out of the article is that we are to make a choice between two ways.
One way is the totalitarian way in which we try to control the people with technology by tracking the virus and limiting our civil rights and so on. And the other way is to empower people by giving them information and access to resources so they can take decisions on their own, believing in the maturity of people that they take the right decisions.
I'm not sure what the right way he is, because when the Corona crisis started here in Germany... I'm living next to a park and it was clear that there will be a lockdown and I've never seen that many people in the park just the weekend before the lockdown.
And I thought "People were informed and still they didn't give too much thought about it". Or it appeared that they didn't give too much thought about. Maybe they gave. And also here, we don't know what the right thing to do is, whether it's social distancing or herd immunity. I'm not an expert on these issues. But you asked me about the world after the crisis.
Well, I mean, we are hit by the virus. And it will be a hard hit on our economy and I hope that our economy, kind of the heartbeat of our society, will recover soon. So we all can recover soon. And the things we can learn from the virus are not new things. It's things we already know. A lot of people are talking about sustainable economy these days, a lot more than in the weeks before, but that is not new.
I truly believe that every one of us, every individual has the power to change things by simply adapting his to her behaviour. And maybe the virus is a good example because we are slowing it down by staying at home. And so we can change how our economy works, how society works, just by doing the things you want to see in the world, and then we will get there in time. I don't know what is good for the world.
So the last question. What is your wildest dream for the future? What do you don't even dare to dream about your life or society?
It's very easy at the moment, it's just having a healthy child. Which is due soon. So my daughter will be born in the midst of the Corona crisis. The projected date is on the 28th of April. So it can happen any day. And my wildest dream and wildest hope is just simply having a healthy child in my hands in three of four weeks.
What is your what is your wildest dream about the world that your daughter should grow up in?
Well, she's a woman. And my wildest dream is that she will get equal pay, that she will have all the possibilities, that she can pursue everything she wants to pursue. And that she will have a world that is that is ecologically in a good state and also economically in a good state. And that's what I wish for everybody, not only for my daughter.
Thank you.
