Covid has taught us lessons about humans which could change world
Whatever we make of the year 2020 so far – and most people’s views, let’s face it, are likely to be unprintable – it has to be acknowledged that for all the pain and terrible grief it has brought, not least to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, it has also been a year that has set most of us on a massive learning curve.
At a personal level, for example, many of us have learned just how much we turn to the natural world, at a time of crisis, for solace and renewal; when loved ones are far away and beyond physical reach, spending time among big trees, by the sea or in beautiful green places is absolutely the next best thing, and sometimes the best of all.
S ome of us – perhaps a frightening number, for those who want a rapid return to the old economic “normal” – have learned just how well we can do without many of the patterns of consumption that characterised our old lives. We have travelled much less, worked from home, relearned a few domestic skills; and what’s more, we have enjoyed relearning them, moving a little more slowly, having more time for friends and neighbours, in a way that does nothing for conventionally measured GDP, but ever ything for the qualit y of our lives. We also learned during the first lockdown – with almost explo - sive force – just whose work really matters in a crisis; and how little our current wage and salar y structures reflect those real priorities. And we learned, or should have learned, one par ticularly impor tant political and economic lesson which those currently in charge of our economy are already working hard to consign to histor y. We learned about the massive economic and regulator y muscle that sovereign governments of all sizes really possess, when it comes to confronting a crisis.
We learned that government has the resources to suppor t the incomes of millions of citizens for long periods, if it chooses to do so; and we learned that the conventional stories we are told about economic policy – about strict limits to government spending, about the “unaffordabilit y” of plans such as those put for ward in the Labour Par t y’s 2019 manifesto, and now about the need for what is in effect fur ther austerit y, after the nation allegedly “maxed out” its pandemic credit card – are par tial truths at best, and ones which finally have more to do with political choice, than with supposedly immutable economic laws.
This week, though – with the announcement of UK approval for the Biontech-pfizer vaccine – there came one more lesson from the Covid expe - rience; a powerful reminder that given the will, the consensus, the collective
effor t and the resources, human beings can achieve astonishing things, in a ver y shor t time.
At one level, of course, we always knew this. In ever y emergency, we see ordinar y human beings draw on extraordinar y resources, not only of kindness and determination but of organisational skill, in setting up systems that will help their communities to sur vive and pull through. And we also know the histor y of astonishing collective endeavour in war time, when whole production systems – for ever ything from food to Spitfires – could be turned around to war purposes in weeks, and then back again, when peace returned.
The speed with which effective vaccines have been developed, though, for such a complex new virus, also reminds us that human beings are almost by definition the ingenious ape, the ones who can invent and reimagine and invent again, until we find the solutions to our problems; and that once all the forces of science, government, commerce and popular suppor t are aligned, their power to generate those solutions at speed can be formidable.
Over the last 40 years, negative views of humankind have been de rigueur not only on the economic right – where it clearly suits power-holders to undermine belief in institutions of solidarit y, and to convince people that they were born to compete and crush one another rather than to coop - erate – but also among many on the green left, who have obser ved with horror the growing negative human impact on our beautiful planet, and have come to regard our species as a kind of blight, or indeed a virus, on the face of the Ear th.
In truth, though, humanit y is neither god-like nor malignant; what we are, as primates go, is ver y sociable, ver y inventive, and – as our miraculous histor y of visual ar t, stor ytelling and music reminds us ever y day – hugely creative. S ometimes, our powers of invention and inter vention run far beyond our wisdom in controlling their consequences; sometimes, as in this year’s push for a vaccine, we succeed in using our powers to solve a problem we have cre - ated, and even to begin to set up systems that might ensure the equitable distribution of those solutions.
The pandemic, in other words, has acted both as a wake -up call, and as a huge signpost, pointing the way to a more decent and viable future.
The crises coming down the track are undeniably vast; climate change, environmental degradation, species loss, disruption of weather systems and food production, fur ther pandemics – all of those are now likely to be on the 21stcentur y menu, for many or all of us.
After 2020, though, we know a great deal more about how we can confront these crises, socially, psychologically, politically and economically. And we know, above all, that we can no longer afford to indulge in our customar y privileged pessimism about humanit y and its potential. Instead, in order to sur vive and thrive, we need to love one another, with all our strength; and to believe in our collective power to solve the insoluble and achieve the almost impossible, given half a chance.
Reject cynicism and embrace ingenuity, collective spirit and love, writes Joyce Mcmillan