Preface: Life in the Post Pandemic Age

Summary

The production process of any book takes a long time. During the final stages of the work on this volume the global pandemic began to rage around the world changing our lives in ways that seemed utterly unexpected, tragic and surreal. As I am writing these words, we are still right in the middle of it, without any knowledge of what might be the final outcome of this crisis. What we do know is that at least hundreds of thousands of people globally will die as a result of it; we know that we are all traumatised by the events linked to it and we don't quite know what the future holds. Still, some reflections are already clear. First, it appears, whatever the real reason for the outbreak of the deadly virus, that it was connected to the mankind's disrespect for our environment in its broad sense. As the conspiracy theories are flying on social media, the real reason remains the same: our species’ attitudes to other forms of life and this planet are problematic. We will need to change the way we are and the way we think. Second, it is also clear that some of the countries appear to have been better prepared for this crisis than others. The lack of preparedness of the UK and the USA has been linked to the extreme neoliberal policies over the years, which, to put it bluntly, prioritised profit over care. Now that we know what the result of such attitudes is we must fight even more resolutely for the different policies to ensue.

This book has always aimed to offer some ideas as how to resist neoliberalism. Now this need is more urgent. Will we embrace kindness and generosity over dominance and our unconscious individual desire for power, which psychoanalysis more than a 100 years ago identified as catastrophic for humanity? Will we be able to offer through our creativity an alternative to the thinking that only activities that bring about immediate and measurable results are significant? Can we hold on to our rage to help bring about a different future?

Pandemics have, historically, produced a rupture and a change – not always for the better. We can begin working towards a more positive future through a re-definition of what success is and what must be valued in any society and culture.