Page 186 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

CONCLUSION

In June 2020, barely six months since the pandemic started,
the world is in a different place. Within this short time frame,
COVID-19 has both triggered momentous changes and magnified
the fault lines that already beset our economies and societies.

Rising inequalities, a widespread sense of unfairness, deepening
geopolitical divides, political polarization, rising public deficits and
high levels of debt, ineffective or non-existent global governance,
excessive financialization, environmental degradation: these are

some of the major challenges that existed before the pandemic.
The corona crisis has exacerbated them all. Could the COVID-19
debacle be the lightning before the thunder? Could it have the
force to ignite a series of profound changes? We cannot know

what the world will be like in 10 months’ time, even less what it will
resemble in 10 years from now, but what we do know is that
unless we do something to reset today’s world, tomorrow’s will be
profoundly stricken. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a

Death Foretold, an entire village foresees a looming catastrophe,
and yet none of the villagers seem able or willing to act to prevent
it, until it’s too late. We do not want to be that village. To avoid
such a fate, without delay we need to set in motion the Great

Reset. This is not a “nice-to-have” but an absolute necessity.
Failing to address and fix the deep-rooted ills of our societies and
economies could heighten the risk that, as throughout history,
ultimately a reset will be imposed by violent shocks like conflicts

and even revolutions. It is incumbent upon us to take the bull by
the horns. The pandemic gives us this chance: it “represents a
rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and
reset our world”. [165]

The deep crisis provoked by the pandemic has given us plenty
of opportunities to reflect on how our economies and societies
work and the ways in which they don’t. The verdict seems clear:
we need to change; we should change. But can we? Will we learn

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