Solidarity in all our interest

Climate scientists have been warning us for a long time. Hydro-Quebec says, too. Even François Legault admitted it more than once on Thursday during his press conference: Weather-related power outages will become more frequent.

Our Prime Minister has called for solidarity, and he has called us to take care of lonely people. He said, “We will get through this together.”

to protect yourself

He is right to talk about solidarity and not just dealing with this crisis in the near future. It has always been one of humans’ best bulwarks against chaos.

Solidarity brings with it mutual assistance and cooperation, which are two important factors in the development and progress of societies.

Yuval Noah Harari illustrates this well in his highly successful book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which we had better not forget.

Backed by historical research, it presents solidarity as one of the main mechanisms that have enabled the human race to reduce its vulnerability to hazards of all kinds, including environmental hazards.

Liberation

So, as counterintuitive as it may seem, history teaches us that humans get rich by sharing.

Mutual aid, more than competition, is the basis for the evolution of not only species, but also societies, organizations, and individuals.

When people can bond and join forces, they improve their living conditions and performance.

Other research has noted that countries where there is more social and economic solidarity and equality are likely to have a higher happiness index than countries where individualism is cultivated and every man is for himself.

Solidarity is not the only factor, of course, but it plays an important role that we tend to forget in this world that pushes us towards division and new polarization.

Resilience

In this time of great upheaval, where so many people feel fragile happiness, it seems to me that the time has come to return to sowing solidarity around us.

Many of us feel powerless and powerless in the face of the climate crisis, artificial intelligence, wars, and many other phenomena disturbing our relationship with the world and the future.

We may get the impression that we are protecting ourselves by withdrawing into ourselves, both individually and collectively. However, we will not build solutions by closing our doors and double borders, and by cultivating fear of the other.

See what’s happening in the US.

Thus, not only material resources are important. Especially when it is distributed unfairly and wasted outrageously. Here too, many people live with food insecurity and housing shortages while working valiantly.

Giving our children a viable future means pooling our intelligence, skills, and more resources. We will all be winners. History has shown us this. We would be wrong to forget it.