Understanding the Origin of the "Failure Epidemic"
Striving for a “Zero-Failure Mindset”: Learn for Success, Not from Failure (Part 2)
Every Epidemic has a Patient Zero —
An epidemic is when a disease affects more people than usual in a certain area during a specific time period.
Patient Zero refers to the first person known to have contracted or is responsible for spreading a particular infectious disease.
In epidemiological studies, identifying Patient Zero is important because it offers insights into the origins and initial introduction of the disease into a community and how it spreads.
For example, HIV/AIDS is a deadly global epidemic affecting the world today. According to the WHO, about 85.6 million people have been infected with HIV, in addition to about 40.4 million who have died from AIDS.
In the United States, the first cases of what is now known as AIDS were reported in the early 1980s.
The health authorities observed a cluster of rare and aggressive infections and cancers in individuals who were previously healthy — particularly among gay men in the New York and California areas.
In his 1987 seminal book, Randy Shilts documented the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the US and identified Gaëtan Dugas as Patient Zero
The book drew from the work of researchers and healthcare professionals who were trying to understand the virus.
One such was the 1984 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study examined the sexual contacts of 40 gay men infected with AIDS by analyzing their sexual histories.
One of the 40 men was Gaëtan Dugas, a Canadian flight attendant who appeared to have connections to everyone with the disease and was believed to be a major factor in the spread of the virus.
Dugas was described as a "charming, handsome sexual athlete who had hundreds of sexual encounters with multiple partners per year.”
It was claimed that Dugas's sexual activity had involved more than 2,500 sexual partners across North America after he became sexually active in 1972.
Shilts1 portrayed Dugas as “Allegedly infecting or endangering others with the virus through intentional or reckless behaviour resembling sociopathy.”
Dugas's behaviour confirmed the hypothesis that HIV was a sexually transmitted infectious disease — he knew he had AIDS and was reckless in spreading it to his multiple sexual partners.
Like HIV, I believe “Failure” can also be considered a type of Virus
Mankind has been in a Failure Epidemic ever since we can remember.
By Failure, I’m referring to the inability to meet a standard or achieve a goal.
Today, the Failure Virus affects all aspects of human life, causing failures in personal, professional, institutional, and societal goals.
This Failure Epidemic also requires a form of study to help shed light on its origin and how it spread — So where did Failure come from?
To answer the question of the origin of the Failure Virus, let’s consider Failure’s Patient Zero — Adam
To conduct this study, there is no better place to begin than in Genesis — in the creation narrative.
Adam was responsible for the outbreak of the failure epidemic being the first documented case — he became the father of failure.
We know that God planted a garden eastward in Eden and put Adam, with clear instructions — Eat freely, but not from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat from it, you’ll die.
There seems to be nothing complicated about the instruction — It was straightforward.
Adam and Eve enjoyed uncensored communion with God until they disobeyed that commandment.
The disobedience of Adam was the origin of the Failure Virus.
Sin means “Missing the Mark”
Much like failing an examination for not meeting the required pass mark — Sin signals a type of Failure.
That is what is meant when Paul later wrote that— “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
Adam fell short of the divine mark, and his failure set the stage for a chain of failures mankind experienced ever since.
The symptoms of Adam's Failure Virus were immediately evident—
Before now, he had named all the animals — naming them meant he defined their identity and assigned their authority.
During this naming ceremony, God endorsed Adam’s initiative; God did not object to anything — it was “very good” as far as God was concerned.
But in the failure state, Adam’s attempt at problem-solving, to mitigate his newfound awareness of nakedness and shame, was, to say the least, pathetic.
Naturally, fig leaves for clothing seem like a good innovation, but it was insufficient to solve the nakedness problem
God had to Intervene—
God's intervention revealed man’s inadequacy and incompetence in solving his own problems.
We know that this act of divine tailoring underscores Adam's failure, and by extension, Mankind’s Failure.
This failure has manifested in various forms — such that everything we build or pursue (outside God) always falls short of the standard set at Eden.
This is why I mentioned in Part 1 of this series
As was the case with the Titanic, I believe they should have known that both humans and the most sophisticated of our creations are Fallible — something we learned in Genesis.
But wait —Whose fault was Adam’s Failure, Adam’s or God’s?
After all, if God is the one who made the “product,” why would this “product” be susceptible to failure?
This failure wasn’t just a single incident, but one that perpetuated throughout our History and infected all of mankind.
Please stay tuned for the Part III
— Dr Azu ✌️
Your Wisdom Partner
Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951 – February 17, 1994) was an American journalist and author who was himself gay and died of AIDS at 42 years old.