Pushing forward

Covid-19 has set the US economy on fire. More than 30.3 million unemployment insurance claims were made over the last six weeks – the equivalent of roughly 19 percent of the nation’s civilian workforce. By some estimates, 12.7 million workers may have already lost their employer-provided health insurance, not counting any dependents who were covered under those plans. And, while the pandemic is affecting everyone, everywhere, persons, communities, and businesses of color are bearing disproportionate shares of the burdens.

Given the magnitude of devastation experienced thus far, it is not surprising to see increasingly hostile calls for the suffering to end. Americans want to put out the fire. And top officials at all levels of government seem quick to respond with promises that life will go “back to normal” in short order. The economy, they say, will “really bounce back” in a matter of months.

Setting aside questions of how (un)realistic such promises might be, is an unqualified “return to normal” a good thing? Do we really want to just “bounce back?” After all, before the coronavirus hit, the US was already experiencing some of the highest levels of inequality and largest racial wealth gaps in recent memory – disparities that are on track to be exacerbated by Covid-19. At the same time, more than one-fifth of American children already lived in poverty. Experts suggest that food security has become an even greater issue for these children as a result of the pandemic. Are these the “normal” circumstances to which we hope for an immediate return?

One reason that leaders (and their loyal followers) are so eager to settle for “bouncing back” from crises is that moving in a different direction would necessitate more short-term sacrifice. In other words, it is neither quick nor cheap – nor always popular – to wage war on the “institutional rigidity” of the status quo. Another reason is that many leaders and experts genuinely believe that bouncing back to normal is the hallmark of resilience; and, as such, it is what we ought to aim for.

Both of these justifications are weak, though the latter is especially flimsy. In particular, a social system is not resilient because it returns to the way it was before a disaster, pandemic, or terrorist attack. A system like that – characterized by constancy, persistence, and the ability to go back to the way things were – is a stable system. By contrast, a resilient system is one that, when faced with a crisis, adapts and self-organizes.

Excerpted from: 'True Resilience Involves Pushing Forward From COVID-19, Not Just Bouncing Back'.

Commondreams.org