The COVID-19 Pandemic and Issues in the Preservation of Traditional Culture

Abstract

This article deals with the issues related to the preservation of traditional culture in times of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today the world is mostly concerned about the biological aspects of the problem: when the pandemic will end, what the consequences will be, and how many people will survive. Another aspect that is given prominence is the economic effects, which for many nations are also connected with the issues of survival, prospects of massive impoverishment, unemployment and famine. Next on the scale of modern values comes the political dimension of the problem: not all country leaders and political systems have stood the test of a serious crisis. Finally, at the bottom of the list are cultural issues, “culture” understood in a broad sense as a way of life, traditions, mentality, communication patterns (both at the local and international level) of the world’s different peoples. Clearly, the crisis of “culture” does not immediately provoke any tragic outcomes – death, famine, disease – but it has far-reaching, delayed consequences, which, in a sense, are no less disastrous than biological, economic or political ones. These issues are discussed in this article.

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