The New Normal- Will there be a change ?
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Mankind has faced several situations of a pandemic such as SARS, flu, Swine flu, etc. What makes COVID-19 special is the fact that we did not have the vast source of information which is available these days. In times of SARS media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook was not present, and globalization was in its nascent stage. The more someone talks about it the more it gets registered. A number of impressions matter a lot and thus our system which is wired to be activated by fear gets done just that. Even though the fatality rate of COVID 19 is much less 3.3 % in India when compared to these other pandemics it is the continuous reinforcement and news that we get which has made it even deadlier than it is.
The second thing which I wanted to point is the fear of the invisible. You can fight against things you see but what do you do about the unseen. Planning which is an important aspect of mankind and makes things tick has been severely affected.
However, there are deadlier diseases then COVID 19 and the reason why the businesses are shut is because of the lack of cure. Once these vaccines are developed I am sure people would come back to normal. Now, what is this new normal which people are talking about? People not meeting each other. Less number of public gatherings, malls, and live sports to be affected something which I doubt. Man is a social animal for a reason. This is what makes us different from the other animals.
‘The ability to cooperate flexibly in large masses’, as Yuval Noah Harari pointed very well in his book Sapiens.
Cleanliness will be an important factor going forward with people being more careful than ever with hygiene. There can be changes in the way people behave in certain pockets not majority wise because 80% of the population as Noam Chomsky pointed out in his manufacturing of consent that people merely follow orders and the remaining 20% who are educated and make decisions on their own they are the ones who will change their behavior.
The new normal as I believe will be applicable only to the minority 20% of the population. There may be small tweaks here and there, but the new normal which economists and consultants are talking about is not going to happen sometime soon in large numbers.
With everything being uncertain and bold predictions being made about life after COVID 19. I was wondering how the world has reacted to pandemics before and will there be a change in the normal which people are talking about.