The ‘New Normal’ Means New Ways of Thinking

There is a widespread view that things cannot and will not go back to the ‘old ways’.

There is less about what that means.

The ‘what’ we will think may as yet be a large puzzle. But one thing is already clear: the how we think will have to change.

This will require people who have not been affected economically by the lockdown of business to change their ideas. They cannot go about business as usual. We need decent people enterprising to revive the economy and that may require some flexibility, indeed imaginative thinking, and creative co-operation on the part of local authorities.

The shutdown has given us the opportunity to re-think the balance in our city, even if only for a year or two, as we work out the ‘new normal’.

We can do with less cars and more café tables on our streets right now. People not only need to make a living, but the city needs to a living city again.

https://amp.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/gardai-tell-cork-cafe-owner-to-remove-outdoor-seating-1002529.html

All through this crisis the government has followed the public mood and, it is clear, that mood has (wisely or unwisely) been encouraged by politicians to move on. And it is not as if there are not lots of regulations that are not enforced. Awareness and some common sense now should be the order of the day until we see where we are.

Here is looking to the City Council to demonstrate leadership in bringing our city to our future, ‘new normal’.

As that great economic thinker, John Maynard Keynes, whose time has come again (as it always does), put it:

‘The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.’ 

That's the challenge Covid-19 has given to us. The question is: who will lead?