You can stand athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’ all you’d like, but you’re never pushing back that iceberg.
You can decry this period as ‘late-stage capitalism’ self-assuredly, but until the true egalitarian ideal is achieved, your words are merely aspirational.
Very little a society experiences is unprecedented per se, but anything can be unexpected. Emerging from the pandemic’s emergency measures as we are, shake off the debris of anxiety. Stepping into a new year, remember what hasn’t killed us before and move again.
Recovering from an act of violence takes time, but it also takes resilience, fortitude, perseverance. Recovering from acts of political violence require all those traits plus belief, trust, faith, ambition.
The pandemic was an act of political violence we were clearly unprepared to experience. Political violence, because allowing COVID to run unimpeded took work, took concerted effort by political leaders to get out of hand. But we withstood. So we withstand.
2020–21 was one year rolled into two, though it often felt like 10. Willful negligence extracted a heavy toll on our society. Distrust, violence, isolation on top of avoidable suffering and death corroded the necessary bonds that enrich our lives with meaning. There is no “I,” no you or me, without society. We protect society by valuing it, cherishing it, sharing it with whomever.
Effective vaccines, treatment and preventive measures mean it is time to reemerge.
Emerge into what? The past is escaped beyond reach or recovery, so we cannot reemerge into 2022 as a continuation of 2019. 2022 is, like any year, an anomoly. Singular. Itself. Approach it as such.
Rehash or rejuvenate, the choice is yours.
History only ends when its final subject dies and never before have so many of history’s subjects (you, me, everyone) coexisted simultaneously. At nearly eight billion, humanity better lay a clear path of accommodation for another two billion in the coming decades. History is not going anywhere.
A society of great luxury (the US) got pummeled from left field. Are we reminded, then, that appreciation of life is the great necessity of living? The pervasive negativity bias so dominate in social discourse reveals ingratitude. Arriving on the other side and yet toxicity is directed in every direction. Imagination captured cannot create.
Lessons exist though. Imperfect lessons for imperfect times. Let’s learn from them.
Go outside. Breathe air that is fresh. Breathe air that is putrid. Enjoy the beauty of nature. Enjoy the ramshackle dilapidation of industrial society. Expand lungs spared the worst destruction of COVID-19 from the surplus enlivening, life-giving air.
So much of this world is free, freely given and freely received, if only a little attention is paid.
