Potential for lasting change
In just 10 days it is already hackneyed to describe the speed of change this world is going through as dizzying. It’s more than that. It’s absolutely bewildering. In moving to alert level-4 tomorrow we are entering a vast unknown where what we hold as certain is changing every day and there is no way to know when that uncertainty will end.
For now anxiety is something we must learn to live with. But this is also the time when we should acknowledge how good we are at coping with change. Throughout history we have thrived when change was forced upon us.
The coronavirus crisis is a world-changing event and there will be no returning to the world we had before. While we can grieve for what is lost, we can also look forward to what we can gain. We will never be the same. We can decide to be better.
There are already superficial changes in how we operate that are fast becoming the new version of normal. Contactless payments, online shopping, touch-free greeting, virtually staged meetings and new etiquette around how to behave when you’re sick. These are useful changes and essentially operational ones that were easy to foresee.
How else the coronavirus crisis will influence our future society is more opaque. But the clues are there. The global curtailment of production, tourism and freedom of movement is brutally revealing of just how destructive our behaviour has been. Without the crush of tourism Venetians are finally able to see the fish in their canals. With huge swaths of industry shut down, the air quality in China has improved remarkably. And across the world people confined to their homes are adapting to living with less.
These glimpses into an alternative world are inspiring. It is fair to expect Venetians to ask their leaders if their future must involve the continued sacrifice of their city to tourism, for Chinese to ask if they must trade a healthy environment for material wealth and for everyone to ask if we really need so much stuff in our lives.
The crisis may also see us question our obsession with individualism. Selfish and competitive behaviours that are so good at driving the economy of our capitalist system, but also result in such things as panic-buying and hoarding, won’t see us through this crisis. Cooperation and engaging in community-minded behaviours will.
In New Zealand the crisis is really only just beginning but it is already abundantly clear we are all in this together. Every part of our society is affected and every part is hurting. Our fates have always been linked but we’ve largely forgotten that. This is a stark reminder.
That reminder will influence our future behaviour. It could see us genuinely prioritise good relationships with our neighbours, family and colleagues. It could change our patterns of consumption to favour local suppliers who live in our communities.
It could also see a renewed expectation that our leaders tackle such previously intractable problems as inequality, as we recognise the costs of an unequal society are borne by us all, eventually. There will be much more change and it will be impossible to predict. We must embrace it.
Time and again humans have thrived from disruption. The Great Depression, WWII, and the Global Financial Crisis were all painful. Once we got through them, we were stronger. There is no reason to think this crisis will be any different and every reason for us to demand that the reward for the sacrifices today be a better world tomorrow.
The crisis may also see us question our obsession with individualism.