Will the world transform after the pandemic?

It seems highly unlikely

It seems everybody has time for self-introspection ever since the pandemic confined most of us in our homes. Experts are back in action making all kinds of predictions about how the future will unfold. Most of these predictions are about how many industries and businesses will survive or perish.

Much of the foretelling is about the loss of jobs and how the nature of employment will transform.

Most of the prognostications lament the imminent closure of the restaurants, malls, airlines, hotels, and so on.

A few commentators say the pandemic will sow the seeds of a positive transformation of the world. They envision people will change their consumption-based lifestyles and adopt austere and environment-friendly lifestyles. The air is also thick, hoping humanity will abandon the cruel livestock farming that inflicted untold misery on animals and polluted the environment.

Humanity has always been poor in making predictions. It will not be different this time. It is fashionable to predict radical shifts whenever we face a crisis.

But as history tells us, most of the promised utopias never materialize. It is impossible for a materialistic society to practice abstinence and reduce its consumption of goods and services.

It is utterly meaningless to hope that societies that are hostage to the delusional idea of everlasting progress and addicted to production and consumption will abandon their lifestyles and live in close harmony with nature.

It is futile to expect the meat industry to close shop and promote vegetarianism and veganism.

It is pointless to expect humanity worshipping at the altar of puritanical humanism and materialism to embrace spiritual values.

Visible dangers to life and existence force a re-evaluation of existing paradigms. But once the storms blow over, the crisis fades from public memory. When a cure and a vaccine are discovered, COVID-19 would look less menacing.

This is not a nihilistic or misanthropic proposition. Humanity has exhibited the ability to adapt and transform existing social and economic orders.

The post-pandemic world will not look exactly like the pre-pandemic world. There will be changes in how we work, produce, consume, travel, and socialize.

The problem is humanity is now in a survival mode. It is difficult to leapfrog from a survival mode to a transformative model. The natural progression from a survival mode is towards restoring the pre-pandemic ways of living.

I expect that, by 2021, humanity will revert to its consumption-based lifestyles in most parts of the world. Social distancing will become a thing of the past once people lose their fear of the virus.

The animals that are roaming freely will have to run for their lives once humans reclaim public spaces. Clean air and water will become history once humans resume industrial activities and livestock farming.

The engines of capitalism will roar once again. We have not discovered or experimented with humane and fair capitalism that will spread prosperity wider and reduce inequalities. The society is raring to go back to the pre-pandemic days. It has hardly any incentive to re-examine existing development models.

The Earth tried to teach a lesson to humanity. But humans, despite the suffering and pain they experienced, seem eager to put the bad days behind them and to embrace the business-as-usual mindset. The humans will have the last laugh until they confront the next Nemesis.

I will be happy if I am proved wrong.

Thanks for reading.