COVID-19 as a starting point for changes
Certain societies remain traumatized by various historical events during a particular period of their history.
Usually, a lot of mechanisms (be it the state or any field of art) are involved in the process and focus on making their collective trauma universally shared. However, this time everything is different. For several months now, the COVID-19 is no longer a problem of any particular part of the world, it has spread to all parts of the Earth and became a Global Problem.
It is already clear that the world before the pandemic and the world after the pandemic no longer resemble each other. Reassessing relations of other states with China, changes of political weather, improving remote connection methods is an inevitable change.
The new Coronavirus once again proved that the virtual world can bring many real-life actions of our lives under control. Months later, when the pandemic passes, people’s connection to technology will be much more sophisticated and multifaceted.
At this point in our lives, we are facing a very strange reality. Being in a public area, being close to people or any other kind of gathering is so risky that it is prohibited by law. Of course, the features that are forming now in our minds are just habits, we have become accustomed to such small details as keeping our distance from our familiar ones or keeping a distance when we’re standing with strangers, wash our hands often, etc. For example, today I noticed a child coming out of the building in front of me, who tried to change her walking course when she saw a woman walking in her direction.
We cannot say if all of our newly adapted behavior will become a norm for everyone, but the fact is that a certain part of society will never be the same.
On the one hand, people will appreciate public places. However, I don’t mean just corporate parties and gathering with friends. Imagine, that after all this time you’re able to walk freely on the street, in a shopping mall, or in a park, people around you are laughing and talking loudly - didn’t you smile happily while imagining this picture?!
On the other hand, the question is: will touch become taboo? Will the old ways of greeting cause embarrassment? From now on, instead of asking: “Wouldn’t it be better if we figured it out face to face?”- We might ask: “Is there an important reason why we can’t solve this problem online?”.
However, the good news is that it doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert, at the end of this trouble, going out in peace will make you happiest person in any case!
With the development of the world, life is moving at a rapid pace. More and more women are choosing to pursue a career in addition to being housewives; Lots of new professions are emerging to keep pace with modern challenges. When we’re visiting someone, we hear more and more rarely, “enjoy your meal, it’s baked at home!” And if someone really offered us a home-baked cake, we would definitely be thrilled.
I have subscribed models, designers, actors, singers, freelancers on Instagram, in their stories, all of them are surrounded by family members, have their hands dipped in flour. If not these hard times, it’s possible for some of them to live their lives without touching the dough. Maybe these few months will establish new traditions in families? Maybe someone will start loving cooking?
I read an interesting article about the topic, “World after COVID-19”, where American thinkers try to predict possible changes. Several theses caught my attention.
First: Can these several months give rise to a new type of patriotism in America, that equates the importance of patriotism with the existence of the armed forces?
Since you can’t shoot the virus, healthcare doctors, pharmacists, teachers, police officers, small business owners, and their employees are on the front lines of the war against COVID-19 nowadays.
According to Mark Lawrence, when it’s all over, there is a big possibility that those people will become as respectable as war veterans. He hopes, that ‘’Americans will finally start to understand patriotism more as cultivating the health and life of the community, rather than blowing up someone else’s community’’.
The second opinion that caught my attention belongs to Canadian-American film director Astra Taylor, who thinks that the new Coronavirus has revealed a system malfunction.
Because of the pandemic, the U.S. government has suspended evictions, sheltered homeless people, made paid vacations available to all employees, President Donald Trump frozen student loans.
After these processes, Astra Taylor asks a sharp question: it makes sense that some rules lose their meaning during a crisis, but it still makes us wonder why they are the rules/laws if without them the mechanism still works freely?
In her view, this is an unprecedented opportunity to try and change the laws not temporarily, but forever.
Here’s an article that might interest you:
