A complete disruption of normality is something many people secretly (and not-so-secretly) fantasize about. So now it’s here. It’s immensely stress-inducing, but also an opportunity to really rethink how we’ve set up our economies and our cultures.
In previous “shocks”, elites have forced changes that were ultimately anti-people. Can we beat these elites at their own game? Can we at least dare to think this?
If large amounts of corporate work, research, design, and coding can be done at home, then why are people pumping out carbon dioxide to drive through traffic every day?
Can we really think of ourselves as an advanced civilization when we can’t get basic healthcare right? How can we blather about exploring space, understanding consciousness, and even conquering death itself when we don’t have the courage to use already-existing technologies to alleviate suffering?
For those of us experiencing anxiety at the mere thought of not being able to meet people for a few weeks, what does that say about our actual priorities? We want to be social, but the systems we keep perpetuating make us think of socializing as some kind of fluff — an impediment to productivity. What are we being productive for? Many of us will now have an opportunity to be productive alone, without “distractions”. Is that what we want? 🙂
