COVID-19: A wake-up call

By Ron Angle

It is clear now that global society will not be same for decades or more. The current pandemic has changed the way society interacts. For a generation at least, that change will be permanent.

It will not be laws and rules and recommendations that will change our world. It will be common sense. In very Darwinian fashion, we will learn what kills us quickly and ubiquitously and how to respond appropriately. We will learn from our mistakes.

Personally, I am neither concerned nor worried. As a global world we will come out of this more conscious of what must happen to survive an era of instant communication and immediate interaction.

As I type, authoritarian regimes seem to be suffering the greatest losses. Here in our own country, our highest leader started things off by equating COVID-19 with the common cold. He later upgraded his evaluation of the virus being equal to measles.

I believe in Karma, and in time this man will be hoisted on his own petard. This virus does not understand red states and blue states. It is likely that when the numbers are summarized down the road, it will be the poor and disadvantaged and urban populations that will suffer the greatest losses. They will be slow to recover at all levels.

This will not be an apocalyptic societal change. We will recover. This will not be a Netflix series; there will be no zombies rooming the woods. There will be extreme elements within American society that will attempt to consolidate their power and outreach. I suspect their messages of hate and fear will not resonate. We have seen the true enemy and it is measured in nanometers.

Post COVID-19 will be a very different era. I would not be foolish enough to predict what this next New World will be like. It is still way down the road. But human society adapts, and I believe these future adaptions will be for the greater good.

What do you think a post COVID 19 society will be like? Send your comments to graybeardom1942@yahoo.com, and I’ll try to include your thoughts in future commentaries.

About the author:
Born six months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ronald Angle began writing for newspapers in 1958. He and his family moved to Chico from Southern California in 1980. He lives in the Chapman Neighborhood.

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