The Myth of the New Normal
Media today is flooded with talk about the “new normal” we will experience after this episode of the coronavirus ends. We are all going to have new standards for work, play, study, social interaction, shopping, and worship. We will be forced to change the way we live and even do away with hand-shaking. This new normal will prevent us from the great upheaval that COVID-19 brought to our lives, or so we are led to believe.
I do not agree with that premise.
The underlying problem exacerbating the severity of the virus’s impact is that a majority of people are too dependent on normalcy. We take for granted the routine benefits we expect and enjoy. We can purchase whatever groceries we want whenever we choose. We go where we want when we want, and we plan our lives on the presumption that our jobs will be there tomorrow and the days after that. Some of us even take our health for granted, thinking a virus could never attack us. Now, many of us are learning that experiencing crises or life-threatening events jars our perspective on the world. We question old truths and doubt what we previously did not.
We all seek order in our lives and within society. Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, in his book 12 Rules for a Happy Life, discusses in-depth the human need to seek order when faced with chaos. He provides examples of how traumatic events (chaos) can damage the framework from which people view the world. I have experienced this myself following a home invasion, and I have seen it in people with whom I’ve worked after they experience a kidnapping, assault, or act of mass violence. Order helps set our expectations on the world around us and calibrate our behavior to fit within that framework. Coronavirus has had a similar impact on our society as other traumatic events.
What do we want, post-coronavirus?
Many want governments to enact measures that will inoculate us from the chaos of pandemics. Most expect reliability from school systems and employers. We want our lives to reach a normal, and we want guarantees that it will remain that way. Yet we instinctively know that the frameworks by which many operated before the virus cannot remain the same. So we ask what the “new normal” will be.
Therein lies the root of the problem.
Life and, indeed, the world, as Dr. Peterson puts it, includes an element of chaos (some call it evil). Sailing any course without expecting or accounting for storms is folly for the captain of a vessel, just as it is for us. We are fortunate that our economic system has thus far held up. We should be grateful for the robust ways we can still connect to each other electronically. A new normal cannot assume these benefits will remain when another crisis hits.
Rather than expect a new normal, we should develop new expectations.
We should acknowledge that chaos and evil exist in this world, and calamity will strike. It might be in the form of a pandemic, a terror attack, or a mass shooting, but unforeseen and disastrous events will happen. We need frameworks that will not crumble when chaos appears again.
Taking Dr. Peterson’s description a step further, it seems there are two frameworks with which we are concerned. One is individual or personal, and the other is collective or societal. It is easy for us to accept that society (read government) must be ready for chaos. We should ensure ventilators, protective equipment, processes for medical care, and the procurement of other necessary equipment and medicine are in place.
But what about personal frameworks? Can we establish a new normal that expects others, in this case the government, to anticipate and prepare for every calamity we might face as a nation and as individuals? To do so is foolish, for the government cannot always reach you or supply your needs. Take our economy; we created money from thin air to float us through this crisis. The national debt is growing to the point we may not be able to do that again. Meanwhile, we are creating a storm of catastrophic proportions that looms in our children’s future.
If I want my government to be resilient, accountable, and prepared, shouldn’t I also be responsible for the same capacity for myself? Shouldn’t I save for a period of unemployment? Shouldn’t I have a means of obtaining food during a shortage? I never want to allow my family to languish in a calamity because of my failure to plan and prepare. It is just as wrong for a family to have no savings as it is for a state to opt-out of buying ventilators to prepare for a pandemic.
If the new normal means we must be prepared for chaos, what are the capacities we need individually and collectively?
- Resilience: the capacity to return to original form. It requires flexibility. Today, our normals are too rigid. We live in a world we can mold to fit our wants and needs. If you don’t like a regular job, work from home. Too busy with social media to buy groceries? Order them online. Some believe we can even change our gender to suit our wants. We did not need flexibility, and it became an obstacle to our narcissistic pursuits. COVID-19 makes it clear: the laws of nature dictate we must be flexible to be resilient; otherwise, we break.
- Accountability: the willingness and integrity to accept responsibility and consequences.
- Preparedness: the capability to predict, formulate, equip, and take action. It includes the processes, systems, and equipment needed to deal with predictable and unpredictable events.
- Knowledge: waiting until you have no food is not the time to figure out how to can food. What information do you need to take care of your family in a crisis? What information do we want the government to track and maintain?
- Courage: deciding to act against the tide demands willingness to risk criticism; it means the ability to be uncomfortable but still perform. It requires the commitment to stand up for what is right, no matter the cost.
- Hope: our framework must have an element of hope. When the way is long and hard, and the end is not in sight, we need something to keep us moving. Those of us with Faith have something outside ourselves to look to when all else fails. In our darkest moments, we have a light of hope.
The concept of a “new normal” is appealing, but is a myth. Chaos will visit us again. Our best inoculation from the next “virus” is to develop the character we need to deal with it as individuals, families, and communities.
