The good that will come
I feel like my head is constantly spinning with the amount of change our society is experiencing and the new information that is emerging as the world reels from the Coronavirus outbreak. Thoughts I shared just two weeks ago, though still relevant, feel naive and obvious now. While I am consumed and deeply pained by the devastation being wreaked on people’s health, lives, and livelihood as well as on our economy, I am at the same time fascinated by and hopeful when I consider some of the positive changes we’re likely to see to the very fabric of our society.
Without being cavalier about the health impacts, the loss of life, and the terrible economic effects people are experiencing, I am cautiously optimistic that this period will serve as a form of rebirth for our world. I am already seeing many trends, ideas, and actions that represent truly positive and promising developments. While it’s impossible to know now, at this early stage, how these developments will proceed and whether, when the dust settles and the situation calms, how much we’ll revert to what was before, I am absolutely certain that our world will be forever changed. I hope that humanity will make the best of this opportunity and, despite the fact that I am typically somewhat cynical about human behavior, I think there’s a good chance that we will come out of this period with an improved society and a healthier outlook on life.
Here is what I am seeing in the world around me that gives me hope:
- People are prioritizing opportunities to connect with and support one another. I have had deep and meaningful conversations with friends and acquaintances with whom I rarely speak and those conversations are personal, focused, and aimed at providing mutual support. I have reconnected with friends around the globe and I have connected with new work acquaintances in a much more personal manner than ever before. Rather than go through the motions in these conversations, distracted by life and other stimuli, people are taking the time to truly see and hear one another (albeit online), focusing on the person in front of them and understanding what they are experiencing. The depth of connections being forged and the enhancement our personal relationships are undergoing have the potential to meaningfully shape our priorities and relationships for years to come.
- Along similar lines, families are coming together more and spending more time together than ever before. With schools closed and “shelter in place” orders issued, parents are spending countless hours with their children, forced to disconnect from their work in order to provide them with care. For us, while it’s incredibly difficult to balance our work and take care of our children all day while they are cooped up at home and deprived of social interactions with their peers, it is a rare opportunity to get to know them better, be exposed to their schoolwork, and provide them love and care. Honestly, as hard as it is, it’s like a gift.
- This increased familial connection does not stop with the nuclear family at home. Families who are spread out all over the world are connecting in ways they never have before. At our home, we now have near daily group video calls where we gather all the members of the family across multiple locations and homes to connect with and see one another. With Passover coming soon, Jewish families are thinking about how to hold virtual Seders. For us, living far from our relatives, this will be one of the first occasions where we have an opportunity to celebrate a holiday with many of our closest relatives. The quality of our family relationships and the priority we place on family may well persist beyond the crisis and make us much stronger, less lonely, and more supported than ever before.
- People are demonstrating a renewed ability and desire to think about and prioritize the needs and wellbeing of others and an understanding that the good of the group will ultimately benefit us as individuals. In our increasingly individualistic society, this is an encouraging development. Throughout the crisis, I have watched with appreciation as more and more people have used their voices to strongly advocate for the need to put the health and wellbeing of others ahead of their own convenience and desires so that we can overcome the challenges we’re facing. While panic buying and hoarding show us that we have a long way to go, seeing countless news articles and social media posts about how we need to take actions that are individually painful so that we can all come out of this crisis and recover, gives me hope as well as the strength to face those challenges myself.
- The spotlight on medical science and the deluge of data we’re seeing is causing fervent discussions about what is fact and what is not yet proven. As dangerous as it is to have a US President making assertions and claims that are patently false, because these claims impact all of our lives so deeply and people are paying such close attention, it is becoming increasingly clear to everyone that being accurate and using data are so deeply important. Even for those who consider themselves well informed and data driven, the bar is rising. Take, for example, the fact that, because of the US’s failure to provide adequate testing for Covid-19, we cannot know key statistics like the infection rate or the death rate, much of the analyses that we’re reading, even in the most credible sources, are based on conjecture and assumption. It is my hope that we emerge from this period with a significantly increased respect for fact and intellectual rigor.
- The fact that the Coronavirus is a global pandemic that will eventually touch every nation, shows us definitively that we are now a global society. While I understand the cultural value of nationhood, I firmly believe that, like it or not, we must move to a society that is globally oriented and values humans as members of a single world over citizens of a given country. Coronavirus respects no national borders and has exposed how taking a nationalistic approach vs. a global approach is dangerous and hurts us. Although lack of compelling leadership (pretty much everywhere in the world) and governmental ineptitude is holding us back from developing a unified, global response to this crisis, it is now starkly visible just how global our society actually is. I had already started to grapple with the challenges of failure to recognize the global nature of our society in building Amitree’s team across many countries. In doing so, I’ve struggled with matters of compliance, familiarity with local customs, cultural differences, and more — at a time that the technologies and desire exist to build global teams, the frameworks are still missing. This reflects the fact that our society has become global faster than than we have adapted (and faster than many have wanted). I believe that we’ll ultimately have to confront this crisis as a global society and that this will accelerate our progress toward unifying the human race.
- With physical retail commerce being shut down due to shelter-at-home orders, online commerce facing shortages and long shipping times, and with the health of loved ones at risk, people are showing early signs that they understand how we’ve come to be too focused on material goods. As people are forced to contend without access to all the “things” that they want and realize that they’re doing just fine without them, our consumption patterns are likely to change. While I expect that, of all of these positive developments, this one will retreat the fastest when things calm down, I hope that some awareness will persist and guide us to be better consumers in the future.
- As governments are forced to address the economic devastation we’re experiencing, front and center will be the question of whether we use our resources to help individuals or corporations. So many people are calling out the irony of airlines seeking a bailout after squeezing consumers for so many years. People are asking themselves why mismanaged industries should receive billion dollar bailouts while individuals cannot pay rent. I suspect we are seeing a tipping point in which the public will demand that the needs of individuals be prioritized over the needs of corporations and although skeptical, I am hopeful that the pressure is enough to compel the politicians to right the imbalance we’ve had for too long. If we’re fortunate, this could be a huge change to how our society operates, diminishing the influence of special corporate interests above those of the people.
I could go on — there will be countless positive developments related to how people work, our health care system, the distribution of wealth, and more — but I think you get my point. While you may see me as overly optimistic or naive, I feel it’s imperative that we take this once in a lifetime opportunity and realize all the positive outcomes we can from this tragedy we’re experiencing. Whole generations will be shaped permanently by what we’re going through right now. Despite the deep pain and sorrow I am feeling for the world we’re losing, my heart is ready and my mind insists that we rise up together and build a new world out this momentous upheaval, one that is more connected, more supportive, healthier, smarter, kinder, and better than ever before.
