Highlights from Fareed Zakaria's Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

One of my favorite things about Fareed Zakaria's book just published this week, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, is that it's not just about geopolitics, governments and markets but also brings in poetry, literature and philosophy. One of my favorite sections is on page 144, where he writes about the E. M. Forster science fiction story "The Machine Stops." So eerily prescient of our pandemic times. "In Forster's dystopia," he writes, "humanity almost never experiences the real world. The 'clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned'— instead, everyone lives in a small private room, 'hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee,' where all food, goods, and entertainment are automatically delivered to them by an Amazon-like 'pneumatic post' and everyone talks only via videoconferencing. In this world, cities from England to China have been ironed out into uniformity:

"Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies . . ."

But even in this fictional vision of the future, Forster correctly anticipates that no technology can truly substitute for face-to-face connection. Subtleties are lost in digital translation. At one point, a son is talking to his mother. 'He broke off, and she fancied that he looked sad,' Forster writes. 'She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people— an idea that was good enough for all practical purposes.' The son implores his mother to visit him in person, reflecting the spirit of Forster’s most iconic phrase, his call for us to get closer to one another: 'Only connect!'"

And here are a few other quotes and sections that I cannot stop thinking about.

"Voltaire famously noted that the Holy Roman Empire 'was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.'"

"The man who almost singlehandedly unified Germany, Otto von Bismarck, described his role in these terms: 'The statesman’s task is to hear God’s footsteps marching through history, and to try and catch on to His coattails as He marches past.'"

"This book has described the world that is being ushered in as a consequence of the Covid- 19 pandemic. But it is really describing forces that are gathering steam. In order to complete the story, we must add in human agency. People can choose which direction they want to push themselves, their societies, and their world. In fact, we have more leeway now. In most eras, history proceeds along a set path and change is hard. But the novel coronavirus has upended society. People are disoriented. Things are already changing, and in that atmosphere, further change becomes easier than ever."

"Think about the changes we have accepted in our own lives in response to the pandemic. We have agreed to isolate ourselves for long stretches. We have worked, attended meetings, and had deeply personal conversations by talking to our laptops. We’ve taken online courses and seen doctors and therapists using telemedicine. In a month, companies changed policies that would normally have taken them years to revise. Overnight, cities turned avenues into pedestrian walkways and sidewalks into cafes. Attitudes toward people previously ignored or overlooked are shifting, as can been seen in the newly adopted phrase 'essential workers.' And governments have opened up their coffers in ways that were once unimaginable and could lead to much greater willingness to invest in the future."

And on how the problem has been implementing solutions, not reaching them:

"The problem has not been to arrive at solutions — it has been to find the political will to implement them."

If you've had a chance to read Fareed's Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, I would love to hear your favorite parts, too. Comment and let me know!