The New Normal (Pandemic Edition)

The image - one of several which brings a welcome nanosecond of light relief to the social networks flooded with grim and dire news of spread - sums it up for me: The iconic Beatles and Abbey Road.

They are no longer walking forwards purposefully. Instead they are separated in an odd formation. Physical separation from our routine, from our normal lives, from our relatives. From our workplaces. From our schools. 

This is the new normal and may be for some time. A long time. They say that a week is a long time in politics, but....we have no comparison to this last week in either the UK or the world.

Right now I feel I am on the edge of a hill or hotel balcony, watching the tsunami surge towards us. I imagine we all feel the same. 

FLATTENING THE CURVE

The mathematical modelling is what is frightening, and in London where I live a particular report from Imperial College is what turned the UK Government from hoping to contain and control the outbreak with moderate social public health measures to a strategy which now echos China, Italy and others: Because the spread is exponential and what network scientists call ‘scale-free’.

It cannot be stopped: only slowed. I wrote about it this week for The London Evening Standard on Monday and by Friday every single restaurant, bar, cafe, gym and pub across the whole of the UK was ordered to close. The picture is similar across the world, such is the anxiety about the scale and speed of the spread and the resilience of health services to cope.

We’ve seen scale-free spread in other pandemics: It’s what happens. In living memory there have been epidemics which we know all too well, not least AIDS and Ebola. But this is spreading faster and further. 

SOCIAL HEALTH IN A TIME OF CRISIS

With odd timing, my imminent book speaks to some elements of what we are going through and as a result I have been on the airwaves. I went on CNN the day the pandemic was declared to talk about what I call Social Health: How we can connect now we have to abide by physical distance and social distance/isolation.

”TECH-LASH” IS OVER

This crisis has made me rethink some of my more ardent criticism of ‘tech’ because I have realise that communications technology and the internet together with science are the only things separating us now from a life we thought we left several centuries ago: Atomised, isolated communities.

Social Networks are a perfectly good proxy, it transpires, for the intimacy every human craves. What is that saying about 'When the facts change, I change my mind'? In a Coronovirus crisis when you can't meet face-to-face, guess what? Virtual meetings where you see other people via a screen feel....pretty OK. Ditto Whatsapp for group sharing. I have set up a group for some diverse voices across politics, business and media ranging from London and Geneva to Nairobi, Brisbane and New York and it's buzzing every five minutes.

So when I am not looking at the outpouring of messages here and on other groups I am spending ‘meetings’ on Zoom, Skype, or spending time on the phone in a way I have not done in years. It feels like a lifeline.

STAY CLOSE, STAY SMALL

Finally, we have to adjust to a temporary circuit of lifestyle which is much much shorter than we have ever known. This wonderful take on the iconic Harry Beck London Undergroup map says it all.

But I hope your life is not shortened by this crisis, only your lifestyle. I wish you strength and solidarity. And I will post a reading/listening list very soon to help us navigate the New Normal.

You can also find me on @itsjuliahobsbawm on Instagram and on Twitter on @juliahobsbawm or email me: [email protected]

I’ll sign off now with what I used to think was a twee and casual two words - but I don’t any more: Take Care.

I mean it most sincerely.

Julia 

Julia Hobsbawm's new book The Simplicity Principle: 6 Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World will be published in the UK on 3 April, the US on 28 April and throughout the world later in 2020 and early 2021. It is available for pre-order in written and audio book formats.