Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently.
Less individualism.
Eric
Klinenberg is professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public
Knowledge at New York University. He is the author, most recently, of Palaces for
the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization,
and the Decline of Civic Life.
The
coronavirus pandemic marks the end of our romance with market society and
hyper-individualism. We could turn toward authoritarianism. Imagine President
Donald Trump trying to suspend the November election. Consider the prospect of
a military crackdown. The dystopian scenario is real. But I believe we will go
in the other direction. We’re now seeing the market-based models for social
organization fail, catastrophically, as self-seeking behavior (from Trump down)
makes this crisis so much more dangerous than it needed to be.
When this
ends, we will reorient our politics and make substantial new investments in
public goods—for health, especially—and public services. I don’t think we will
become less communal. Instead, we will be better able to see how our fates are
linked. The cheap burger I eat from a restaurant that denies paid sick leave to
its cashiers and kitchen staff makes me more vulnerable to illness, as does the
neighbor who refuses to stay home in a pandemic because our public school
failed to teach him science or critical thinking skills. The economy—and the
social order it helps support—will collapse if the government doesn’t guarantee
income for the millions of workers who will lose their jobs in a major
recession or depression. Young adults will fail to launch if government doesn’t
help reduce or cancel their student debt. The coronavirus pandemic is going to
cause immense pain and suffering. But it will force us to reconsider who we are
and what we value, and, in the long run, it could help us rediscover the better
version of ourselves.
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