I’m not a child, but my anxiety levels during the actual pandemic were at my lowest ever (working from home, no annoying socializing, I’m kind of a shut-in). Now, though, they’re definitely higher than before, if only because I experienced how I could be in an ideal way before it was taken away.
the “society but different and better” was so nice
People were actually mindful. We had weekly applause for caregivers (an empty gesture, just pay those people correctly dammit) and now we’re, well, not back to usual but much worse than before).
I’m especially bothered with the realization of how little regard many of our fellow citizens actually have for others health and well-being. I don’t know how eager i am to return to a society that can’t even agree on diseases being a bad thing.
Totally agree about the empty gestures too, which really stood as a reminder of how little respect healthcare workers (and don’t forget funeral directors and morticians!) actually get especially considering how much they risk for everyone else’s sake
It started as a touching tribute to thank the people in the health service for their bravery and hard work. It then got jumped on by politicians and other arseholes as performative virtuousness, and eventually we had NIgel Farage smugly tapping his saucepan, at which point it became an insult.
It seems so distant now. To say that we learned nothing from the experience is not quite right. The people in charge learned that even brief glimpses of a better life have to be brutally stamped out to stop the drones getting uppity. Hence the push for return to office, abolition of LTNs, and the ridiculous histeria over 20MPH zones - anything that improves the lives of ordinary people must be stopped.
Well we’ve done nothing to prepare for the next pandemic, we’ve had proof that in crisis people will fight each other before they’ll pull together to help, our social systems continue to be dismantled for profit, everyone except the all-powerful ultra-rich is struggling to afford to live, owning a home is an unattainable dream, education is more expensive and than ever and doesn’t guarantee any employment result, the world is creeping closer to war, fascists are on the march everywhere, minorities are being blamed and threatened for the sins of the rich, and the planet is being destroyed at a rate that makes this generation’s prospects look like mostly starvation and war. Maybe young people aren’t too stupid to notice some of this?
I was seriously appalled with how quick people were to turn on each other during the pandemic. It’s one thing to bitch about people with different politics than yours but quite another to grass up your neighbours for minor infractions. Also the kind of open jingoism between counties/regions during tier-system phase. It made me realise what it must have been like in the soviet union. Shocking to see our own capacity for that.
