Days of future past

Life (and editorials) have been pretty bleak recently. Lots of things to worry about, politics, wars, famines, wildfires, etc. I felt I needed some perspective on things, so I started looking at old issues of the Times. That may have been a bad idea! As far back as I looked, it seemed that issues and concerns were very much the same as they are today – in North Grenville, at least. But then I came across some articles and editorials from 2020 – March 2020, to be precise.

Do you remember that month? News started slowly creeping out about a strange disease of some kind that was affecting other countries. Social events here in NG were being cancelled out of caution. The Editorial on March 18, 2020 dealt with the phenomenon:

“As of Sunday, March 15, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported there were 142 confirmed cases of COVID‑19 in Canada of which 62 are in Ontario. 1 person has died. PHAC considers the public health risk associated with COVID‑19 to be low for the general population.” 

The next week, things had become more worrying: “…with a death toll of 13 at the time of writing, Sunday, March 22. According to government and international sources, around 80% of cases of COVID‑19 will be a mild to moderate illness, close to 14% have severe disease and around 6% are critical. To become infected, generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person, within 1‑2 metres, to be considered at risk or a close contact.”

We all know what happened next, and it is really strange to think that this was only four years ago this month. There was no idea that the world was going to be obsessed with COVID-19 for the next two years, and there is still a residual effect at every level of society today. Worldwide, the pandemic killed at least 16 million people, and life expectancy declined in 84% of countries. A recent article noted that “Collective amnesia seems to have set in”. Certainly, we have tried to put all of that behind us, as we slowly and carefully return to what we think of as normal.

This is not to say that all is well. The experience of the pandemic shows that we never really returned to pre-COVID ideas of normal. Lockdowns, social distancing, and the huge surge in conspiracy theories seeking to deny the very existence of a virus, or else claiming it was artificially made by shadowy elites out to depopulate the planet (for some reason), all added to a universal sense of mistrust, anxiety, and outright scepticism regarding authority of all kinds.

The words and deeds of the Trump MAGA movement, both before and since the election of November 2020, have established a new norm in political life. 

How does thinking about this help to ease our qualms and provide perspective on the world in which we now live? Good question. First of all, it shows us that, as the Teacher said: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”. The pandemic was a tragedy and a wake-up call, but it was not unique. It, or it’s like, has happened before and it is expected that it will again. But lessons have been learned and it is hoped that reactions will be better next time.

But we have, perhaps, forgotten one of the most important aspects of those long months of isolation and uncertainty. Although there was serious social disruption, including a takeover of downtown Ottawa, the closing of businesses, etc., there was also an increase in social cohesion: people started to look out for each other, both locally, nationally, and internationally. That had always been a feature of life in North Grenville, and it continues today; but there was a heightened awareness of the need to work together, not to allow isolation to leave people stranded emotionally. Remember the motto: “let’s stay apart together”? 

I grew up reading about other countries living in fear of nuclear annihilation; school children in North American learning to take shelter under their desks, and so on. In Ireland, there wasn’t the same anxiety because we just didn’t believe anyone would want to bomb us! Of course, instead, we started bombing each other… Another story.

The point is that we have always had times of crisis, of fears for the future, of how quickly and easily our world could fall apart, even literally. But it didn’t, and it hasn’t, so far. But until Someone more powerful than a Putin, or a Trump, or ISIS, or any other entity with a grudge decides to change the situation, the world will go on as it has gone on to date.

So, yes, we should be worried about what’s happening in the world, and this year will see important events, elections, wars, climate change, and all the other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. But there’s nothing new in that, although some of the challenges will be. As the Weavers once sang: but though nations are warring and business is vexed, I’ll stick around to see what happens next. Or, to quote another line from those editorials of the pandemic: the end is not yet. We shall overcome.