Tempus Nullius

As we approach the anniversary of the virus we realize it is here to stay, not because it wants to but because we are not letting it go. It is human nature to rebel against change, especially against such a formidable entity. Although with vast technological progress, I might be deranged to compare our pandemic to the epidemics of the past there is a shocking resemblance of human fallibility throughout time. This invisible enemy of the past and the present has bled the institutions of society dry and has crippled the concepts of physical privacy, optimism, altruism, or the structure of social networks. Once again we experience a shift in the culture dynamic as we see a conversion from social security to individual human rights, from macro to micro, and from we to me. This micro-organism has disfigured our reality and our biology, altering our genetics and neuro-psychological response. In this new cultural dynamic, we observe some fatalistic fellows and some ignorant fellows, the new normal with the same existing patterns of society. In these ever-changing times, we recognize the familiarity of the situation with those of the past but we have been simply distracted by these recurring events for the beginning of the crisis is just about to begin.

When the British colonized Australia they declared it as “nobody’s land” (Tempus Nullius) acting as if there were no indigenous people present. This was an artistic way to justify colonization and to seek the future as “unclaimed territory”. For us, the future is also considered “nobody’s time” with no inhabitants and free for the taking. We, humans, have a knack for colonizing the future and it is viewed as a far-off colonial dumping ground where we can freely dump our ecological, technological, and nuclear waste. We have Tempus Nullius-ed our way through life but we cannot afford to push our luck any longer.