This morning, something was different..
As the school started, something was radically different from the previous years: The kids were home. It took me a while to outwardly realize the difference as life with pandemic had become the norm for months in a row. What made the difference was an alarm clock, a wake-up call to relocate for the day, as everyone would be working at a different location. So while absolutely normal for the previous set of years, it had been a while ever since I’ve kind of woken them up from a drowsy early morning slumber in to a world of gradual awakening.
Yet it led me to ponder for the remainder of the day. So much had changed and I had not stopped to look back — either to look back in wonder or in longing. I had pretty much constrained myself in thinking less about the future as well. Mostly it was today. Not like an episode of The Walking Dead that I enjoy a lot but more like a regular sitcom - life had become now and ephemeral. That is a change.
What else has changed? On a grander scale, the world is not that different. Air quality and water clarity is better with less activity, yet the polar ice caps keep melting. Certain conflicts have been put on hold but not resolved. Technological progress, while paying more attention to biotechnology and vaccination at the moment, continues unabated and benefits are still not evenly shared. On the back of other examples as well, it looks like the big picture remains the same.
Yet I disagree and for the worse..
The big picture is not only intact but it is exacerbated with fuel from deep and long lasting issues. The chasms are wider and divergences are more pronounced. Populist leaders are upping the game and covering their tracks. Long-term challenge from China to the US’ global position is certain but the short term muddling by incompetence saddled with intolerance is befuddling the entire post WW2 political system. While the Dollar declines against a basket of global currencies as measured via DXY, its penetration of the global economy and especially the emerging markets is not on the wane. Europe, great at making compromises is not up to face the bigger international challenges. In perception of this weakness, EU regimes to the East are growing more coercive. S&P 500 along with a host of other global equity indexes is rallying on the shoulders of a handful of technology companies. Those very companies are walking the very fine line of being an agent of the authorities and supporting the global community as a whole. Their very power is being checked by all of us who are skeptical of it even if the governments fail to regulate them properly and do not hesitate to use them for their narrow interests. However my kids, your children — they are digital native, I fear for a future where big tech will not be reined in by them as coming from an entirely different background, they might not be nimble enough to spot the illiberal undertones morphing in to despotic overtures.
All these musings to one side, the economies are bleeding from self-imposed lockdowns that have failed to prevent the spread of the virus and succeeded in stalling the quasi capitalist systems in place. The net result is a debt spiral and monetary expansion never seen before on this scale. It is akin to World War periods except that the setting is very different and interconnectedness is unprecedented. Multitudes are favoring gold and crypto currencies over fiat money as the central bankers are losing credibility by the day. Velocity of money is slowing for so long that someone somewhere should have thought twice about the inequalities brought on by mainstream policy choices.
All this farce whether under Blue or Red is farce indeed for the common person. As Obama dashed most of the hope imbued upon him and failed to provide clarity and hope for the American population; so does Trump succeeds in not failing to live up to the basest expectations of his most great leadership. With all these riches at one side, hope is not on the rise. Our kids are educated for a world that their education does not prepare them for. Our futures are constrained by monetary and fiscal injudiciousness. Our lives are threatened by a simple virus whose wisdom runs deeper than our intellect. And millions upon millions are losing their jobs, losing their future, losing their expectations.. We are being equalized at the lowest common denominator.
But today, there is death around us. Fellow women and men are dying by the thousands every day. Doctors and nurses are crushed by the onslaught. Some of us go around pretending nothing has changed. Some of us cower in our homes. All of us, regardless of our ignorance or knowledge, feel fear. Whether that fear is of losing someone we love, losing the life we have, losing what we earned so hard, losing what we thought could have or losing what we should never have had at all; it is indeed fearful and real and here and now.
As the kids wake up and the day trots by, dark and cheerful thoughts collide in the cool air of an impending fall outside…
