‘One day the bottom a-go drop out’ said the 20th century sage Robert Nesta Marley. He was referring to a bucket, but he may as well have had our institutions, social, political, diplomatic, financial – in mind. For we have all gone to the well and found the bucket is now a hole with a handle.
COVID simply revealed the degree of rot in our institutions, structures and polity and was not the cause of them. It may prove to offer them a lifeline, as ‘because of COVID’ has become one of these phrases you hear whose mention is the end of the conversation.
Of course, as with all these other word spells intended to distract us from the disaster zone formerly known as society, ‘because of COVID’ is also a blur. It is due to the measures taken because of COVID and not the cough and cold itself that we have been compelled to notice how things have been, well, progressing.
What is up and what is down? Progress is about detaching these words from any meaning. It’s difficult to say what ‘up’ and ‘down…
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