After the pandemic – plus ça change
There’s an interesting quote purportedly from Arundhati Roy that’s been doing the rounds on social media for a few days. She says something about pandemics making us think of the way forward anew…if only.
Did the massive flu pandemic of a century ago force us to break with the past? What about SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Ebola, Bird Flu, bovine TB, foot and mouth. I don’t think much changed after any of them…
Sadly, it feels like we restarted after the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed on the same industrial, destructive trajectory begun by the Victorians all the way through the 20thC and into this one…giving us the climate crisis, pollution, various animal and plant extinctions, desertification, coral bleaching, deforestation, and even more frequent emergent pathogens than we had before…oh and all those wars…
Look at the people on the streets protesting lockdown while thousands die…once this is over, it won’t be business as usual for a long time, but you can bet that ultimately we’ll go back to our old ways.
Plus ça change, I’m afraid Ms Roy :-(