For a lot of us, the pandemic is something new.
Sure, we were alive during the previous outbreaks — TB, HIV, SARS. But we barely remember them. We might remember bits and pieces, like people draped in Hazmat suits in the news(that’s the only thing I remember), but we’ve forgotten the effect they had on society. How did they change people’s behaviour? What kind of mindset did they give birth to? For me, this is the diamond in the COVID turd. We’ll be able to see a psychological, sociological, and political shift in society. It’s a golden opportunity to see a historic moment.
How different will we be after this, when the new normal becomes something we went through? When everything about it can be made fun of because it’s tucked safely in the past?
I think we’re gonna see a Renaissance.
Renaissance is French for “rebirth”. Historians chose that name for the famous artistic era because the world was dead before that. The Renaissance Age was preceded by a pandemic of its own, called the bubonic plague, or Black Death.
Like us, the people back then responded to it poorly. Also like us, they had to quarantine, especially when someone crossed into another state.
