Why It’s Time To ‘Burst The Bubble’
Each of us lives in a ‘bubble’. Our bubbles contain all the perspectives, information, news, and opinions that are nearest to us in our own families, communities, countries, cultures and religions. Floating inside our bubbles are the bits and pieces of life, living, and ways of thinking that are most familiar to us. They closely surround us and define how we react to other human beings and to the world itself.
The ‘old global normal’ was disrupted in 2020 as escalating populism and localism collided with a disastrous global pandemic. In our current global society, bubbles are a norm. Very often we forget to engage beyond our borders, connect beyond our political communities, communicate beyond our cultural familiarities. At its extreme, this births dangerous localism, and inhibits global cooperation and even our own sense of global citizenship. If we had escaped our bubbles and worked together, the pandemic would not have hit as hard as it did, and lives would not have been lost at the scale we have seen. The fact that this didn’t happen is scary; faced with a global crisis that doesn’t respect the borders, nations, cultures, skin colours or wealth which all too often divide us, many of us responded by building our walls even higher — reflecting the tempting comfort of staying within our own bubbles.
But if we cannot unite in the face of a pandemic, then how on earth can we tackle climate change, vaccine distribution, and the inevitable global crises of the future?
There is constant talk of going ‘back to normal’. But if our ‘old normal’ led us here in the first place, then why should we return to it? If there is anytime where we have an opportunity to pave a new trajectory for our species, it is now. Let’s use this experience to reflect on our collective shortcomings, respond to these failures, right wrongs and work together to construct a new global normal.
But systemic change does not happen overnight — let alone changing global norms — and will not happen if we are overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.
So, to enact meaningful change, we must take this step by step. Change starts with each of us. That’s where our pledge comes in: if each of us pledges to work at ‘bursting our bubbles’, we take the first step in making international-thinking a norm and creating a global culture of cooperation, communication and collective solidarity.
Our test is now. We can do this.
Global Changemakers has an unshakeable mission of supporting youth to create positive change in their communities. A global pioneer in supporting youth-led development, they have trained youth from over 180 countries and provided grants to over 360 youth-led projects, which have had a combined impact on over 6,2 million people. www.global-changemakers.net
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or Global Changemakers.
