Individuals captured on that the returns on the crazy hamster wheel of “normal” have been decreasing for decades, however everybody was too busy to observe.
The superficial “go back to normal” narrative focuses solely on very first order results: now that people can dispense with masks and social distancing, they are resuming their pre-pandemic costs orgy with a revenge, which augurs great profits for Business America and greater tax profits. Yea for “return to regular.”
This superficial narrative disregards second-order effects of the pandemic. Recall that very first order effects: every action has a repercussion. Second order results: every effect has its own repercussion. We can also think about these as direct (first order) and indirect (second order) results.
The pandemic’s very first order result was to shut down the crazy hamster wheel of American life. The consequence of the pandemic– shutdown– had its own repercussion: people had the chance to experience life outside the crazy hamster wheel, and ask themselves why they tolerated the dead-end purposelessness, demeaning rigidness and life-draining tension of the whole spinning device.
For a great many people and characteristics, the pandemic was a transformative driver, and there is no going back to pre-pandemic “regular.” Many individuals experienced a liberty and expansiveness they ‘d either never ever experienced or forgot that such things even existed. This experience triggered a Metamorphosis, and they’re never returning to pre-pandemic “typical” due to the fact that “regular” was a horrible landscape of exploitation, drudgery, pathology and useless yoke.
Think about the re-chaining of the digital labor force to the Cubicle Plantation, where “totally free” (heh) treats are supposed to compensate for the dreary Underworld of catatonic-inducing conferences and the rest of the plantation’s soul-crushing regimens.
Lots of wage-slaves feel they have no choice however lots of others have actually decided they’re never ever going back.
< img align=" center "src="https://www.oftwominds.com/photos2021/dilbert5-8-21a.jpg"/ > A terrific many of the working poor have also chosen they’re never ever returning, and the time away from their low-paid wage slavery opened up brand-new possibilities, from better-paying tasks to flexible gigs to getting by on casual incomes and part-time work.
Though none of the spending orgy cheerleaders seems to have actually observed, international tourism caught a potentially fatal disease in the pandemic’s shutdown, as homeowners found their cities, beaches and communities were actually lovely and liveable once again once the travelers all disappeared.
While all the corporations and investor-“hosts” profiteering from overcrowded, messed up cities and islands cheer the return of the millions, the residents are swearing to never ever return. In Venice, the residents don’t desire the giant cruise ships returning ever once again. In Hawaii, only 14% of the locals authorize of a go back to the pre-pandemic crush that was destroying the state.
Freed of the problems of tourism, individuals are now asking cui bono, to whose benefit? The apologists and PR hacks answer is always the $10/hour dead-end jobs, however the residents no longer buy the fake PR, as they understand all the “advantages” circulation to remote investors, not locals.
The overwhelming majority of Hawaii citizens want far fewer tourists, and desire those travelers to pay a lot more for the opportunity of visiting. They also desire limits on how many visitors are enabled daily into beach and other parks, and they desire the visitors to pay admission and parking costs so residents can go for free. (Hawaii’s yearly visitor count topped 1 million in 1969, when I remained in high school, and the state was currently crowded with tourists. In 2019, the yearly visitor count topped 10.4 million.)
Citizens from Barcelona to Maui desire investor-owned BnBs in residential areas banned, as the global financier class has actually bought up real estate in “must-see” areas to profiteer off tourist, over-burdening facilities, ruining regional communities and rates residents out of homes.
The costs orgy cheerleaders are promoting a dream variation of a time device in which we reset the calendar to September 2019 and everything “returns to typical.” Sorry, cheerleaders: second-order impacts can’t be reversed and the cultural transformation is well under way.
Individuals captured on that the returns on the frenzied hamster wheel of “regular” have been lessening for years, however everybody was too busy to see. They all attributed their burnout, exhaustion and vacuum to specifics within their own lives, today they’ve awakened to the reality that burnout, exhaustion and emptiness have constantly been systemic, i.e. the repercussion of the system as the returns for individuals reduce with every passing day.
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