I’m writing this on the UK Bank Holiday weekend usually known as Whitsun. Next week will be our 12th week of lockdown. To say a lot has changed in 12 weeks could be the under-statement of a lifetime.
It’s hard to know where to start with the change – on the surface at least pretty much every part of our socio-economic environment is different. The GDP of almost every major economy is bombing whilst borrowing has reached record levels in weeks. The neo-con liberal right’s World view has been blown up in front of them , mostly by their own side. The left are almost equally shocked by the scale of mostly centrist or right wing Government’s interventions. How can, for example, a UK Labour leader now say the Tories are determined to get rid of the NHS when a Tory Government has taken the nation to possibly the edge of bankruptcy in the name of saving that exact institution?!
The big questions though aren’t how much has changed already – it is how much has permanently changed and what changes are yet to come.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people on TV or seen posts and blogs saying the World will never be the same again and this is bound to be true. The memory, scars and shock of this social and economic Tsunami will have a lasting impact on our social and economic environment.
I’ve also heard hundreds of good people say this is an opportunity to change things for the better and that we can never let the World go back to the fast, selfish, inequitable, dirty, divided place it was before. For those of us who have labelled ourselves as ‘progressives’ this is clearly a golden opportunity. Covid19 is the Great Disruptor.
What worries me is 12 weeks in and I’ve seen and heard much less about HOW the World can be changed for the better. Leaders still reeling from the shock and embroiled in helping steer through the crisis have little time or capacity to look up. On all sides, there could be a tendency to start steering back towards the old norm and towards a battle over tweaks.
We need new leaders to start new conversations – parking old structures and crossing old boundaries focussing on ideas that are founded upon the common values that were emerging in the early part of our new century but which had failed to find a common home or a shared vehicle in countries like the UK or US still solidly stuck in bi-polar left and right systems.
The real and radical potential opportunities will only materialise with new ideas, debates and conversations – national conversations and global debates – building a new consensus around values such as individual personal freedom framed by social responsibility and collective accountability.
The common priorities were evident already – saving our planet; sharing resources more equitably and safely; controlling and regulating lawless institutions that had emerged outside the control of existing States or global infrastructure (e.g. Google – which Covid has shown is more powerful than any State). No single person or philosophy will have all the answers to HOW we meet these priorities but we all have a duty to start asking the right, big, priority questions.
It would be a crime if this opportunity was missed but its not certain it won’t be. I’m not a natural pessimist and I can’t abide cynicism but unless these questions emerge quickly and new leaders grab ownership of the conversation space whilst the current leaders are in shock the opportunity could pass.
The current leaders will soon start doubling down on controlling and recovering the ground they’ve conceded aiming to anchor to their past certainties. That’s emotionally natural and almost inevitable. The greater the volume of uncertainty the stronger their resistance and fear of letting the past go will become, even if they see the past burning up before them. They can’t win and have already in many ways lost but the longer and stronger they hold on the more likelihood there is of them reaching out to their extremes for help – the reactive, defensive, isolationist, scared old left or right…especially if we lrt the extremists get to them first.
If Reactionary’s get to own the conversation it will take longer (perhaps too long for the health of the Planet) to get any positive momentum for progressive change. This chance will be lost.
We can’t do cynicism – it’s the Reactionary’s greatest facilitator. And its early days but I can see this is a critical phase. If we trully believe a safer, brighter future depends on the World being more responsible; with shared accountability; greater equality and inclusion – then we have to step-up – together now. Not necessarily with the answers but at least with the questions and some ideas to explore together.
Emotionally this isn’t easy. It’s easier to wait and be led – especially with so much uncertainty still around. But rationally we must see both the opportunity and the risks of standing back.
The most scary part of stepping-up is thinking you’ll be on your own. But rationally we also know we’re not alone – the shared values have been amplified across the crisis – and we know the old leaders, systems and structures have and will catty on failing us. The most dangerous thing now is doing and saying nothing.
All we have to do is act on and be driven by what we have in common – which is more now than ever – directed by our common values. And do this together. Who’s in? Who want’s to take the lead?
Look out for LinkedIn, the SoR website and more on the Looking-Up blog for some of my questions and ideas. Leave some of your own in the comments box.
LOOKING UP! 