COVID-19 is a Catalyst for a Cultural Movement that’s Cracking Down on Consumerism
The Realization
While on a run today I noticed something; that all of our retail shops are closed, but the construction industry, development of our infrastructure is full steam ahead.
Then I thought to myself; in a couple of years when we look back, what will it all mean? The Coronavirus, social distancing, and non-essential business closures — and I think I’ve put my finger on the pulse.
Operation COVID-19
I’ll be speaking in a metaphorical tongue, I think it’s the best way to convey an idea this complex. It may read like the Unabomber Manifesto, and you may think that I’ve gone off the rails, but please hear me out.
COVID-19 is a double agent, it’s an alias of the Coronavirus. On the one hand it’s a disease, but on the other, it’s a catalyst for a cultural movement that’s cracking down on consumerism.
Our politicians are pushing a nationwide purge of this “virus” that has consumed Western culture. We’re starving it at the very source, starting with the non-essentials. Many will not survive this purge. Like the flood story in Genesis, it’s every man for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost.
Don’t you get it? We’re leveling the playing fields. Our supply chains have become too dependent on offshore manufacturing. And in some sense, it’s a big middle finger to China, saying, “Hey, we’re still here, mother-fuckers!”
Like a Manchurian candidate, COVID-19 has been disguised to infiltrate our economic system and rid us of this disease that has embedded itself deep into our everyday lives, because we’ve allowed it to.
We’re collectively marching forward into battle, and it’s starting to manifest itself in society. I mean, just look around: we’ve closed borders, isolated ourselves, and “bunker’d down,” in the realest sense, to withstand a culture war that is happening all around us.
Lessons from History
We had SARS, H1N1 and Ebola in recent history and largely ignored it. There have been people talking about the next big pandemic for decades, we’ve had plenty of time to prepare — but didn’t.
After the wars, we realized how good we had it. It caused us to buy even more, out of fear of a time we can’t do so again. Furthering the consumption problem.
The same things were said about the Great Recession. We’ll buy less, we’ll rediscover the things that really matter, the little things, and we’ll realize that less really is more. How did that turn out?
We make promises to ourselves to wake up every morning and work out for an hour, but two weeks later we’re back at square one. We are wired to see immediate threats and don’t look at the future. That’s why immediate gratification is so appealing, but the irony is that excess consumption has made people less happy.
Perhaps a few people will consider a better stocked pantry, keep a veggie garden, have a few chickens and become more self-reliant. But if history repeats itself, then as a whole, society will go largely unchanged. In a generation or two this’ll be mostly forgotten. Take for example the Hong Kong Flu (H3N2) of ’68, which killed an estimated one million people, that you never hear about in the history books.
A Post-COVID World
Things will change though. Big events like this always lead to big changes, but we won’t be able to see it until well after. The mistake arises when we try to predict the future, in being overly optimistic or overly pessimistic about it all.
It will be a 9/11 level change. There’s going to be a massive amount of pressure to look at how people move around the world and what they’re carrying with them to foreign lands. There will be a similar amount of suspicion on travelers from Asia as there were on Middle Eastern/Muslim countries.
If anything good comes from this, then this right here is it:
- Revival of the family
- Debate on the importance of homeland manufacturing
- Debate on the importance of homeland security and maintaining borders
- Debate on the advantages and disadvantages of globalism
- Goods produced in the US, Canada and Mexico instead of China and India
- Virus/disease testing will get better
Things will be safer overall, but at what cost?:
- Watching as corporations rush in to take advantage of a crisis
- Noticing that our politicians, on both sides, are still playing games
- Seeing how quickly we panicked and gave away freedoms for security
- The East/West divide will grow even larger
- Society enters a 1984/Brave New World type scenario
Maybe we’ll move towards a world where cash is a thing of the past, or maybe Universal Basic Income is the order of the day. We’ll just have to wait and see. One thing is for certain, change doesn’t wait for people to agree, change comes and drags people with it, whether they’re willing or kicking and screaming.
Looking Back
In a couple of years when we look back on the zeitgeist, the spirit of this time, what will be written in the pages of history books? I hope it captures a moment when we all came together to fight a war against the “other,” who is always, always attacking from the outside. And as a result, we are wiser than yesterday.
Now then, where do we go from here? Well, what are those things that you’ve always wanted to do but never did? What better time than now?
It’s time for a Personal Revolution.
“Like a tree with dead branches, you need to burn off all of the deadwood. And It’s going to hurt a lot. And when it’s all over, you may just be a stump, a fraction of your former self. But at least you’ll have the chance to grow back, and be a better person.” — Jordan Peterson
Now, I can write about many other important topics, like the trade war, the stock market collapse, postponing of the Olympics, cancelling of the election, or the ushering in of a technological revolution, but I’ll save that for another time. Instead, I’ll leave you with a quote by one of my favorite authors:
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy
Thanks for reading.
― Van
A special thank you to everyone on Reddit who inspired me.
www.vantrinh.com
