黑洞社区

鈥淲hen can things get back to normal?鈥� This question is increasingly asked of ministers and their scientific advisers in daily briefings. Everyone looks forward to a time when we can move freely and without fear but this period of upheaval could give us the opportunity to re-evaluate what鈥檚 really important to us.

As Rebecca Solnit, an author who has specialised in the impact of disasters on society, wrote in The Guardian last week: 鈥淭he first lesson a disaster teaches is that everything is connected. In fact, disasters鈥�are crash courses in those connections. At moments of immense change, we see with new clarity the systems 鈥� political, economic, social, ecological 鈥� in which we are immersed as they change around us. We see what鈥檚 strong, what鈥檚 weak, what鈥檚 corrupt, what matters and what doesn鈥檛.鈥�

This sense of being connected, of being part of a global whole, might help us move to a more conscious belief that how we behave, organise our society, manage production and consumption really does matter. My hope is that we emerge from this crisis with a different sense of ourselves and our relationship with the world.

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