© Jo-Anne McArthur
Albert Einstein famously quipped that he never thought about the future because it came soon enough. He might have been a genius, but he didn't experience the coronavirus crisis - and thus could not imagine a time when society would be so obsessed with thinking about the future.
There are a number of difficulties with trying to anticipate what society might be like after this crisis. In the first instance, we have no idea how long this will go on. Experts disagree. Some suggest lockdowns could be relaxed in three months. The UK government is now planning on at least six months. In each case, the outcomes could be significantly different.
Second, whatever happens in the future we can be sure there will be continuities and disruptions, and destructive and constructive dynamics at play. Crises are never one-way streets.
But - and this is critical - the coronavirus crisis will not bring year zero, a new era or clean slate in which what happened in the past will disappear or can be ignored. Nor will pandemics be the new normal. The exceptional peacetime actions taken by governments and central banks, and the reorganisation of society and the economy around lockdowns - which is inducing some behavioural changes - are temporary, not permanent.
Comment: For now. A trial run, anyone?
Comment: What better way to tame the public beast than threaten its health and wellbeing with a sudden and traumatic event that has the capacity to circle the globe and unite mankind under false pretenses too scary to be properly examined? What comes up in resistance will then be negated and its opposite supported by appropriate propaganda. Test run almost complete...a few tweaks and next?