The Choices We Make As A Society & Individually Will Impact Us For Decades To Come

To reuse an increasingly cliched phrase “these are interesting times we live in”. The continuing global pandemic is definitely testing what was previously considered “stable” and “normal”. While some of the recent geopolitical changes could have been ignored by some, the reality of the global pandemic is that it is impossible to ignore.

As such, the growing unease, both at a societal and an individual level, is reaching levels that have not been seen in a century. There is no doubt as to why this is the case. Trends and assumptions that have been made about society are being tested and, potentially, disrupted.

The reality of today’s society is that these trends and assumptions have been tested for several decades now. What is different is that instead of a gradual transition, society is being forced to choose what type of society it wants to be over an incredibly short time frame. 

There is no doubt that the actions we choose to take now during the global pandemic and immediately after it will determine the values of society over the next few decades. The anxiety that everyone is feeling right now is the fact that it is not only one or two societal variables being changed but nearly all of them. In addition, it isn’t just the quantity but the fact that it is impossible to ignore the changes that are coming or fool ourselves that the changes won’t impact each of us individually.

For most individuals, stability is required to achieve greatness. It varies by degree but knowing that the sun will rise tomorrow or that the neighborhood coffee shop will still serve your favorite cup of coffee is important from a stability and a routine perspective. 

Now that those routines don’t exist anymore, it creates a sense of fear and panic. For some, it will cause a new set of positive skills and behaviors to appear. For others, it will reduce risk tolerance to a bare minimum and it will take a significant amount of time and patience for the previous level of risk tolerance to return back to its previous levels, if at all.

Indeed, predicting the present and the future direction of society is virtually impossible. In many respects, how we individually respond to this global pandemic will impact the collective and ultimately the choices we make as a society in the coming months. 

While predicting the present and the future may be virtually impossible, determining what variables we as a society will have to consider is much easier. Too numerous to count, variables that society will have to make collective decisions on include:

1. Greater Global Awareness Or Continued Isolation: For better or worse, the global pandemic has increased awareness of the need to look beyond one’s community and national borders. While some individuals will take the global pandemic as a wake up call to continue to be well informed of events happening globally, others may revert back to an even more insular approach and will completely shut out the world beyond what they need to maintain sustenance.
2. Global Partnership Or National/Regional Power Plays: While this is a variable that has been gaining prominence recently in the geopolitical landscape, it more than likely will grow in importance post-pandemic. There will be those individual nations and regional economic blocs that will see the value in forming global alliances to grow their economics and overall geopolitical standing. On the flip side, there will be those who see partnerships as a threat to their perceived dominance and their culture over both the short and long term.
3. Open Borders Or Restricted Borders: Another variable that was gaining prominence even before the global pandemic. The battle between those who wish to enable unrestricted borders, not only from a physical perspective but an intellectual perspective, are increasingly being challenged by those who wish to reinforce and rebuild borders for numerous reasons. 
4. Reducing Or Increasing Inequality: While wealth inequality was already increasingly seen as a threat to overall stability, the need to address it will grow in importance. The sad reality is that the current global pandemic will worsen this inequality and unfortunately create the ideal conditions for unrest.
5. Increasing Automation Or Increasing Humanism: The reality of the global pandemic is that it will force a further reckoning concerning the necessity of human individuals in business processes particularly with automation increasing in importance. Determining how we will use humanity will be one of the most critical issues facing us in the next decade. If we can’t find a humane way to provide dignified life to all individuals then we face even more unrest and rebellion.
6. Reducing Or Increasing Opportunity: There is no doubt that for several million individuals their opportunities will be reduced thanks to the current global pandemic. The global pandemic will reduce and remove individual opportunities through closed borders and permanently shuttered businesses. What we as a society will do to lessen the blow from these reduced opportunities will have ramifications for decades to come.

Others however will find limitless opportunities in the post-pandemic world. With norms disrupted, there will be those who will find a world more receptive to their formerly zany ideas and will find success.

While the focus has mainly been the societal changes that will occur post-pandemic, one should also acknowledge the changes that will occur on an individual level. Indeed, how we as individuals will respond to this global pandemic will not only determine how society will be shaped but whether we live the lives we were meant to.

There is no doubt that the current global pandemic will have a significant impact on all of us individually. There are choices that we need to make individually that will determine if we live life to the fullest or if we just live:

1. Am I Happy Doing What I Am Doing Now Or Do I Want To Do Something Else?: As many individuals are confined due to shelter-in-place orders, many are now reconsidering whether what they are doing fulfills their deepest personal desires. Is it truly what they want to do or are they doing it for the promise of a large pay check and rapidly disappearing options?
2. Yearning For Stability Or Opportunity To Pursue Unfinished Projects?: Some will point to the fact that Isaac Newton did his most seminal work during the bubonic plague and will use this opportunity to pursue unfinished projects that will make them the next great in their field. Others, however, will look towards the future with dread and anxiety. They will yearn for an environment that provides them with the stability that they vaguely remember pre-pandemic. 
3. Do I Desire Stability Or Do I Continually Adapt?: One factor that the global pandemic has significantly upended for everyone is the perception of stability and what it exactly means. Indeed, the global pandemic has made every single individual realize that stability is a very fragile illusion and one that can disappear at a moment’s notice. As such, individuals will be evaluating what they really need for personal stability and eventually what are the skills they need to continually adapt in an increasingly uncertain world.
4. Growing Risk Aversion Or Growing Risk Tolerance?: The unprecedented shutdown of transportation links and the lack of individualized assistance from institutions will weigh heavily on some. They may view activities that they once considered common such as air travel to another country or the plentiful availability of food as illusory even when things “return to normal”. As such, those individuals will be more risk adverse and may turn inward. 

Others, however, will look at the post-pandemic landscape and say this is the best time of our lives to take risks. Norms have been challenged and are ripe for disruption meaning what was once considered impossibly risky and doomed to failure may succeed in this new unstable environment.

As demonstrated, both society and individuals are dealing with an unprecedented number of variables to consider during this global pandemic. We all must make decisions in the midst of little certainty and during a time of high emotions. 

Whatever decisions we make as individuals or as a society, we must remember this pandemic will pass and that life will resume. Altered, yes, but it will resume. So yes we must make decisions in the short term for survival but we can also still make decisions for ourselves and for society over the long term as well.