Solidarity in the concept of COVID-19

What did you think by reading the headline? What kind of role could have solidarity in these days, when the world has the same period in the same way,  with the same alarm, fears and with the same warmth. When everybody gets out of home hoping, that virus will not catch him/her, or in the public transport, looking around and trying to understand, is anyone infected or not. 

I am sure that all of us have these thoughts, and I am going to speak about the importance of solidarity these days. Because being human we all have the same demands and we can overcome this period by having solidarity. It's already up to the person how he/she will perceive it.

 If just two months ago we had spoken about solidarity, probably there would have been different groups in society according to the interests. For example solidarity can be understood in different directions by considering nationalities, religions with common ideas. Then it turns out that there’s something, which  any nation, any developed or undeveloped country has no idea about. Probably it can seem abstract to find any solution in this uncertain situation. But it will be easier to overcome this situation being in solidarity.

The main idea of solidarity 

Solidarity - feeling of unity based on respect, support, equality, common values, welcoming actions, diversity, communication, different cultures etc. This is the formula of Solidarity that needs to be common for all of us. But it turned out, that this concept doesn't really work here, but also is absent in the psychology of many people.

Just several days ago in Armenia, the social and traditional media was flooded with information about the woman who arrived in Armenia from Italy to take part in the engagement of her nephew. After this event some people were diagnosed with positive COVID-19. I am not going to justify this woman, who probably wasn't conscious that her care lessness and recklessness  could be the cause of such consequences. People started to criticize and insult her by publishing her photos, which is obviously the violation of human rights.

But the fact that Armenia isn't an exception, is obvious. Sooner or later a virus would reach this place as well, probably because Iran already has some cases, and being a neighbour country, there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t appear in Armenia as well. But of course it’s not really important. People hurry up to find the guilty people, maybe because it's easier. But when the topic is about being aware and being attentive to each other nobody has responsibility. Whatever!

The situation is going deeper in social media. Now people isolate themselves on social media and what is happening here seems under control. Fake information is a bigger infection than the infection itself. Because it influences our mood and builds a wave of criticism to this or that person, who can be state official, ordinary citizen or just aunt who arrived from Italy to share happiness with her nephew.

And what do you think, what kind of role in this situation solidarity could have? Maybe it's time to stop any kind of criticism. Or generally what's the purpose of criticism or charges,  if the society is in danger that threatens everyone. That's the period when it appears really stupid to find a guilty one . Why don't we think that maybe it's just the attitude of the Earth towards everybody? That it's just a message to catch up, to refrain from any kind of criticism, to keep solidarity, self-possession, to stop time and reflect, what's going on, what we did, we have or we need to do for all of us? Because solidarity is necessary for mutual respect, help and confidence and because we don't help someone to have a benefit, we do it from instinctive feelings of solidarity.

European Commission had published the document Solidarity in Europe. (You can find it in below) In this paper they mentioned that Solidarity is Alive and Active in Europe.That Solidarity is a moral value, tied to identity. It's focused upon empowerment, social justice and citizenship with a view to understanding successful solidarity practices. So maybe one day, after this hard period, this situation will also be observed as a practice. We need to reflect that there is strong evidence of aptitudes supporting help for each other by staying at home and saving our communities.

 And in this concept solidarity is not only about supporting each other, but also it's about self-possession.Probably you start to think about things that you haven’t done before. Or maybe you will start to be solidary just for yourself. I hope you're working on it. Finally we have time to fill the lack of being with ourselves, family, having dinner together and discussing the ideas like how can we overcome the visual danger, keeping solidarity in virtual life.

Probably you have more interesting ideas?:)

Here I have some interesting materials for you about the topic:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/policy_reviews/solidarity_in_europe.pdf

https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/pdf/conferences/arts-congress-proceedings/2017/paper-32-abstract.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity