There is a weird drive in people these days: The idea that what we know and call Normal is precious, and must be preserved against all odds.
I think this is dangerous and leading us to further harm.
I see it in many incarnations on a nearly daily basis. A stubborn resistance to necessary change, even when it means denying reality and even causing serious harm to others.
Hear me out.
Covid normalisation
One very clear and obvious form of lethal “Business as usual” is COVID-19 minimisation, which has become the widespread norm.
Since the world’s decision to “live with the virus”, we collectively do nearly nothing to prevent infection. Air quality is something only a tiny fraction of concerned individuals think about, masks are generally not even “encouraged” anymore, even in health care spaces. Vaccinations are still offered, but the eligibility criteria is steadily being reduced, offering young people little choice other than repeated infection. Tests are now expensive and hard to come by, the regular self-reported survey has been de-funded and wastewater monitoring is not only updated less frequently, it also covers a smaller portion of the country.
But the virus is still around. It is still mutating, still infecting people, killing some and disabling others. ABout 3 people a week stll die, countless more are disabled to some degree by long covid.
The long term effects of infection — which include immune dysregulation, neurological damage, and persistent inflammation to name a few — are rarely discussed out loud. People have been lied to, made to think that they need to be infected so their immune system “becomes stronger”, despite evidence of the opposite.
The priority was to get back to “normal”. Wearing a mask, monitoring air quality, ensuring adequate ventilation of proper spaces and availability of filters when ventilation is impossible are still considered unacceptable deviations from normality. Adaptation to a new reality is too much to ask. Those of us wearing a mask are always the rare ones.
We are knowingly letting a virus weaken, disable and kill us in the name of retaining the feeling of past normality.
the Climate Crisis
As far as I can remember, scientists and environmentalists have been sounding and increasingly urgent alarm. Climate change is on the horizon. It is coming. It is here.
New Zealand has faced more weather emergencies in the last few months than in entire years before this one. Places around the country barely have time to pick up the pieces before they are struck again by flooding. People report nervous episodes triggered by the sound of rain. Insurance companies are warning about the future viability of insurance for at-risk properties. In a country with an economy built around real estate, this would be catastrophic.
You would think there would be an urgent response to this. A national plan to adapt and mitigate the increasingly serious climate disasters.
You’d be wrong.
Generations of politicians have had their heads firmly stuck in the sand. Avoiding any meaningful action for the climate. The modest beacons of climate action from the previous Labour government (the ban on new oil exploration, the Zero Carbon Act, the EV stimulus) have been gutted or repealed without a second thought by the current governing coalition, who have instead embraced the fossil fuel agenda. They’ve weakened protections for the environment, including fresh water and rivers. The climate commission has said New Zealand needs urgnet and decisive action to respond to the worsening effects of climate change. They are announcing they will make it impossible to bring legal cases to polluting corporations.
Let me make that very clear: their response to climate change is to make sure CORPORATIONS are protected from any accountability from the public or the courts.
They are changing the law so Business As Usual, HAS to continue. So the rest of us have no possible recourse.
Genocide and War
Then there is Palestine. The ongoing genocide an indescribable horror enacted on the people there by the fascist state of Israel and its allies.
There is no sugar coating it. The fact the rest of the world carries on Business As Usual while this abject act of destruction is ongoing is a mark of shame on all of us. The fact that our countries still host ambassadors of this regime, that it participates in Eurovision, that they trade and mingle in the world stage while they execute, torture, and degrade the meaning of humanity with their actions to their fellow humans, makes the entire Westeern world an accomplice.
The incoming oil shock
And the last few months we all brushed up on geopolitics and found out about the Strait of Hormuz. The absurd, illegal war waged by Israel and the United States on Iran has stopped the flow of a large chunk (apparently 20%) of the supply of oil. Unfortunately, our society still very much runs on fossil fuels. Fertilisers, and chemicals like Helium are also stuck at the blockaded chokepoint.
The consequences of this new oil shock are certainly enormous, and hard to specifically predict. But instead, the NZ government (and the US) are doubling down on fossil fuels.
Business as Usual must continue, as the energy and supply systems crumble around us. Our “Leadership” is absolutely bought and paid for by the oil industry profiting of the status quo and intent to milk it whatever it takes.
Change requires courage.
I hope you find your courage. I hope I don’t lose mine.
We need to change all of this and we can only do it together, somehow.
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