Instead of lessons learned, it's the same old, same old - Colm Regan
There has been much fatuous talk worldwide about what we might learn or change as a result of COVID-19. It is clearly possible that some might take the events of the past months (and the undefined time ahead) to reflect on potential lessons.
However, it is obvious from the insistent demands to reignite our economy (definitely not to be confused with our society) and for a return to ‘business as usual’, that reflection is far from the minds of many.
Once again, we seem determined to plunge headlong into the same mad frenzy of growth and consumption as if our very lives depended on it, and damn anyone or anything that gets in the way. It is already abundantly clear that the quality of life, even in this tiny corner of the world, is fast going down the toilet.
We have known for a long time that we live in a world where there are "winners" and there are "losers" and, so long as we perceive ourselves to be among the "winners" then all is OK. Except by now, some of us (but not enough of us) have begun to suspect all is not well with this ‘normal’. Increasing inequalities worldwide and locally, officially sanctioned criminality, extremist environmental destruction etc. highlight...