What if we were to live in quarantine forever? What if the danger of the coronavirus is never going to go away completely, and we will be living the rest of our days with masks and gloves glued to our lips and fingers?
What if the current situation is actually the new normal? And who said it cannot be?
We are laying low, patiently waiting for the tide to pass and anxiously anticipating our politicians to lift the lockdown. But… who said that the tide is going to pass? And are we confusing the end of the quarantine with the end of the pandemic? After all, since when did viruses consult with governments in deciding their plan of attack?
Let’s say that this is here to stay. Undesirable? Sure. Impossible? Not really.
And as fatalistic as these thoughts may sound, that is not the intention or heart with which I expose them. In fact, us humans thinking the way we generally do now – that this is temporary and shall pass soon, after which we’ll carry on just like before – may be the bigger problem. Put in perspective, the longer we believe that this is not “normal” and will end “soon,” the more we delay taking radical action to rise to this situation.
Yes, radical, a word I use here deliberately: not in the sense of revolutionary or extreme with a negative connotation, but instead going to the root, going to the very foundation of the issue it relates to. Delaying commencement ceremonies with the anticipation that the coronavirus is going to go away “later” is not a radical solution; it is merely a deferral, a procrastination. Holding makeshift online classes while technologically ill-equipped students fall through the cracks of the education system is not a radical solution; it is merely a compromise midway to fully shutting down schools. And keeping people in “non-essential” businesses (right, ask my fiancée if nail salons are non-essential) away from their monthly salaries – as opposed to urging safety measures to minimize risk while at the workplace – is not a radical solution; instead, it is a postponement that is costing people their savings.
Is the coronavirus a real risk? Absolutely. No matter the safety precautions, will people get sick? Very likely. Am I arguing that the lockdown violates my constitutional rights? Not one bit. But what I am humoring my reader with, if only as a thought experiment, is to assume for a small second that we’re never going back, that social distancing is here to stay, and to deal with this shocking reality.
Because we definitely can deal with, and we can do so amazingly well.
The mountains that have been moved over the past two months are heroic and a humbling testament to this. Overnight, humans all over the world synchronized their heartbeats and governments and businesses overhauled legacy systems. To expect and demand more to have been accomplished would be quite bold to the verge of comic book narratives. Moving forward, however, let’s imagine the world of difference it would make if we were to make a tiny shift in our minds: this is not going to pass soon.
That maybe, just maybe, the world has changed forever.
Chronicles 