It took a global pandemic and stay-at-home orders for 1.5 billion people worldwide, but something is finally occurring to us: The future we thought we expected may not be the one we get.
We know that things will change; how they’ll change is a mystery. To envision a future altered by coronavirus, Quartz asked dozens of experts for their best predictions on how the world will be different in five years.
Below is an answer from Addie Wagenknect, an artist whose work “explores the tension between expression and technology,” according to her web site. Her exhibitions have been shown throughout Europe and her work has been featured in a number of books and magazines.
I see Covid just making the gap larger between the super rich and the rest of us. Trump/Republican policy guarantees the net result of this catastrophe will be yet another massive wealth transfer from the working classes to the top 0.1%. Mass bankruptcies and foreclosures will lead to mass buying opportunities. The rich will get richer.
At the same time, I don’t want to hear about the impossibility of a better world, especially if you’re not actively participating in making it so. So, what are we going to do? First, it’s important to not do anything out of performativity. And it’s hard not to be suspicious of some of this. There’s nothing profound in telling the truth, and we cannot afford to lose this time that we are capturing right now, in both this period of Covid and the protests around George Floyd’s death. We have resistance on the ground, and the government is scared. This is an uprising, and we all need to commit to action in any way we can.
To read more New Normal answers, click here.