During this crisis the biggest overlooked problem has been our lack of vision and spiritual imagination.
What we have is under threat. We have lost our money, status and livelihood. We have been forced to give up control and sovereignty. We couldn’t have imagined our world going through such dramatic change in such a short time. In this process, our linear and capitalist soul has become so anxious that it has now shrunk to an old fruit waiting to be covered once more by vanilla cream in order to regain its charm. But while waiting for the cream to appear, what will we do? And what can we learn from this situation?
We have suddenly seen the situation as it is, which we didn’t dare to see before. It took some time before the phrase ‘when we get back to normal’ disappeared from our vocabulary. Now, we talk about how the world has changed and how it won’t magically reappear in the same shape and condition as before.
It’s easy to imagine a frightening scenario, but it might not be as terrifying as you think. Maybe we should see this as an important opportunity. We are in a unique position to build a new future, if only we dare to let go of the past. I sense that we are slowly starting to realise this.
The permanent condition after the corona pandemic will be a latent force of change. We’re currently acquiring a unique shared experience of how we as a society can change our collective behaviour from one day to the next. We haven’t experienced anything like this since the 1940s.
In a normal setting, experiences are associated with the individual, or smaller groups. What we see now during this pandemic is a global world population adapting and changing behaviour collectively and at lightning speed. This experience is exceptionally valuable, because it will help us better adapt to future disruptions, such as global climate change. We are now better equipped to react on a global and collective scale.
Trust in the state and experts has been restored
Another thing that has changed, and which will last beyond the current crisis, is our relationship with the state, authorities and experts.
It is suddenly – thank God – cool to be knowledgeable. We are listening carefully to scientists and researchers rather than social media influencers. Our faith in the state has been restored.
While the vertical trust is strengthened, the horizontal trust might suffer. The danger in this current situation is that our disciplined, though potentially virus carrying, human bodies risk being further disempowered and surveilled. We are starting to watch and judge each other, and we have limited or no direct or physical contact. All of which may result in some unpleasant human and social consequences.
Having said that, I believe we’ll see a positive boom already this summer and over the next couple of years. Germany experienced a Wirtschaftswunder after the war and France had a Belle Epoque after the Franco-Prussian War. Similarly, we are hopefully going to experience a new era of business, culture and art flourishing and releasing all the new ideas that came up while saying goodbye to the old.
The lack of vision and spiritual imagination that we’ve so far suffered might return tenfold. I hope that this will provide even better conditions for the young, the crazy, and the unique – all of whom make our culture vibrant and enriching to live in.
