We're kidding ourselves if we think 2020 was just a fluke of a shitty year. One month into 2021 and we're not anywhere close to being out of the mess we're in. A worldwide pandemic that is exacerbating the already existing racial injustice and economic inequality. Climate change ravaging the planet, displacing more people every year. Homelessness and food insecurity on the rise. I don't need to go into the details for you; those who have ears have already heard.
It's no longer 2020; it's the 2020s. Things are going to get worse before they get better. And there is no going back to normal.
This is scary, and we are all already struggling, in some way, with the loss that this has brought about. This is real, and hard, devastating, and there's no way I could ever try to minimize it.
But every loss also comes with opportunity. Every period of chaos and disorder is eventually followed by a period of reordering. If we can get our priorities straight, what emerges from this will be substantially better than what we had before.
"Normal" was never good, certainly not the best we can do, for the vast majority of people. Those at the bottom know that inherently; sometimes the folks more in the middle have just enough to believe they're making out just fine. But even people like me working in relatively well-paying, middle-class jobs would benefit from the wide-scale reordering of society that needs to occur. Consider: even before the pandemic, I still had zero control over my working environment; I still had to work way over my contractual hours to feel remotely competent (always a struggle as a teacher with 150 students on the caseload); I still felt disrespected and exploited by the powers that be on a regular basis; I still had my hands tied because losing my job would mean immediately losing benefits, and shortly afterward the ability to pay my mortgage and student loans. Yes, I lived in relative comfort and privilege--but still didn't have the freedom to fully cater to my and my community's well-being and pursue my potential as a human being. Sound familiar to anyone? Most of us put our heads down and trudge through it silently, knowing that we have it better than many, and fearful of a culture that slams anyone with the audacity to envision a life free of exploitation as being lazy and entitled.
Now is the time for radical change in the way we do society. We're already seeing massive shake-ups in our institutions, and I think this is only the beginning. School is being revolutionized in ways we can't even yet imagine. Protests the likes of which we've never seen before erupted last summer, and best believe they will return. Social media, as problematic as it is and will continue to be as long as it is owned by for-profit companies manipulating our decisions and selling our data (watch The Social Dilemma on netflix if you haven't already), has radically democratized media and the way we share information. I was just watching a local radio show the other day on facebook and impressed at how an ordinary person with talent can get a message across throughout the city, without the need for massive amounts of capital to get something started. The GameStop episode is another hilarious example of the old-guard losing its power due to some collective action on the part of everyday people. More examples abound.
My point is to say that we have to start reimagining our world. We can't be deluded with naïve plans to go back to a sense of normalcy that was only truly wholesome for a tiny minority, if that. New ideas, new possibilities. Young folks can't allow themselves to be held hostage to outdated hierarchies and expectations; it's up to us to bust those up and pursue something better.
I'm excited.
