- Over the past 6 months the term “New Normal” has been repeated as a mantra, cast in stone, in our heads + our psyches
- It’s a state of “gavage of new normal” like Foie Gras ducks in farms that are fed fat, with pipe rammed down their throats
- We have succumbed & outsourced our thinking, & bartered our logic for instant gratification & false sense of security
- This begs the question, as to what is the definition of normality for mankind? Are we really leaving behind an “old normal”?
- In my view we are moving from Abnormal 2.0 to Abnormal 4.0 – skipping 0 all together because of the pandemic
- All the while tech barons, bias accelerators & populism incubators are fully greased & funded to fast track this transition
- Official Message: “Keep Calm & Keep Wearing Your Mask- All’s Under Control” – Nothing could be further from the truth
- We must defrost our innate sense of humanity & remember life is a symphony of the collective & not a solo performance
Staying Sober, Sound & Sensible – A snapshot of why what are leaving behind shouldn’t be considered normal…
- Donald has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize – while many may believe “Noble Piss Prize” would have been more apt
- For having sent Multilateralism into comma/ICU and continuing to cut the oxygen from world institutions like WHO
- Next on the list? WTO – Sep16th 2020 Financial Times: “WTO Decides US Tariffs on China Broke Trade Regulations”
- COVID’s global deaths stand at 1m = 0.0001 of world’s population-195 countries & 195 different responses to pandemic
- U.S has only 5% of the global population yet >+20% of the COVID deaths & 25% of world’s total # prisoners in its jails
- 20 yrs. later & USD2tr downS is signing a peace deal with Taliban – only 7 days ago its V.P was target of an assassination
- Greek Refugee Camp of Moria went up in flames: 16,000 refugees (70% are Afghans) hungry & stranded on E.U soil
- At the same time close to 40m people in U.S are on Food Stamps equal = to the population of Algeria
- Another 44m without health insurance = to the population of Ukraine & U.S senators more busy with Ukraine’s affairs
- Latest Buzzword: Net Zero– we only talk about the CO2 emissions of production & not the CO2 footprint of wars/destruction
- Pew Research: S has one of the lowest voter turnout at 55.7% (2016) among all democracies in the developed world
- Many of the analysts/specialists concur thatS voters don’t vote on foreign policy – economy & domestic issues are key
- Which basically means a free-pass by tax payers funding a defence budget of $740bn & unending wars without a say
- Meanwhile in S schools, kids go under regular safety drills to practice for potential school shootings & gun violence*
- Amazon & biodiversity are in crises – while new companies lobbying for mining in deep ocean bed for “rare earths”**
- Why? “We need these minerals for our e-cars & IOT (Internet of Things), 5G –“we can’t rely on China” is the lobbyists’ tagline
- So we plan to dig on Moon, Mars & ocean beds with a lust & economic vulgarity that is bound to bite us back
- We have raked the earth & damaged the planet beyond repair – watch D. Attenborough’s latest movie: Extinction***
- After Zoonotic diseases the last thing we need to bring to earth are “La Luna Diseases” by digging on the moon!
- Consider Tesla’s mkt. valuation: USD 379bn & manufacturing 366k cars heavily dependant on cobalt & lithium
- Do the math to get value of each car Tesla produces – Toyota & VW produce 8m cars with a joint valuation of $357bn
- If e-car enthusiasts knew their real environmental impact – that could generate the largest migration to bicycles!
- Obsession for growth at any price, quarterly results, & unending search for yield & short-termism has bankrupted the planet
- Our future challenges include Cyber Pandemic, Water & Biodiversity Pandemics – COVID was an MRI of leadership deficit
- Neither hard power, nor soft power can tackle many of yet to emerge challenges – Collective Power is the only answer
- Closer home HS2 costs jumped from £50bn to £110bn, yet MPs are passionate to criticise China’s BRI’s budget overruns
- We view the world affairs through our own “bubbles”, have our kids in “bubbles” & many already work in “bubbles”
- Chatters like “We miss George W. Bush’s presidency” can only highlight the anomaly of our times & the world disorder
- US analysts concerned about a civil unrest in U.S after Nov. elections, as candidates may not concede/reject the results
- A lot of this is happening on the back of what one could call the era of cult-economics, cult-politics & cult diplomacy
- “Gone with the Wind” could make an apt new movie title, in absence of common sense in our world today
- We live in an era of dislocation between real value generation & banking on a hypnotic trust that all can be fixed by AI
Humanity is in a state of denial, sleep walking into the pawnshop of life, where we continue to exchange substance for stuff, compassion for clutter, nature for gadgets & pragmatism for populism. Today the words of most politicians and heads of states have more to do with the occasion, and hardly fit for function or anything close to inspiring leadership. Many of them are on “Self Propulsion”; similar to, the Nikola Motors’ truck when it was only rolling down the hill!
When Ernest Hemingway was asked ‘How did you go bankrupt? He responded “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Next Generations may well ask us how did we leave them a politically, environmentally, and socially bankrupt planet, and in such a messy condition we should say: ”Two Ways. Naively, Then Truly Abnormally!”
Ali Borhani is the Managing Director of 3Sixty Strategic Advisors Ltd. It is the readers’ responsibility to verify their own facts. The views and opinions expressed in this article/commentary are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other individual, agency, organization, employer or company.
* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/29/teachers-call-for-ban-on-shooter-drills-in-us-schools
** https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/20000-feet-under-the-sea/603040/
*** https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mn4n/extinction-the-facts
*** https://www.ft.com/content/5b37b5f5-a8c0-4047-8b4a-bc9914518ab8
Photo Credit: Will Myers @ Unsplash