Page 60 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

1.3. Societal reset

Historically, pandemics have tested societies to their core; the
2020 COVID-19 crisis will be no exception. Comparable to the
economy, as we just saw, and geopolitics, as we will see in the
next chapter, the societal upheaval unleashed by COVID-19 will

last for years, and possibly generations. The most immediate and
visible impact is that many governments will be taken to task, with
a lot of anger directed at those policy-makers and political figures
that have appeared inadequate or ill-prepared in terms of their

response to dealing with COVID-19. As Henry Kissinger
observed: “Nations cohere and flourish on the belief that their
institutions can foresee calamity, arrest its impact and restore
stability. When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, many countries’

institutions will be perceived as having failed”. [55] This will be
particularly true for some rich countries endowed with
sophisticated health systems and strong assets in research,

science and innovation where citizens will ask why their
authorities did so poorly when compared to others. In these, the
very essence of their social fabric and socio-economic system
may emerge and be denounced as the “real” culprit, guilty of
failing to guarantee economic and social welfare for the majority of

citizens. In poorer countries, the pandemic will exact a dramatic
toll in terms of social costs. It will exacerbate the societal issues
that already beset them – in particular poverty, inequality and

corruption. This could, in some cases, lead to extreme outcomes
as severe as social and societal disintegration (“social” refers to
interactions between individuals or groups of individuals while
“societal” is the adjective that relates to society as a whole).

Are there any systemic lessons to be learned relating to what

has and hasn’t worked in terms of dealing with the pandemic? To
what extent does the response of different nations reveal some
inner strengths and weaknesses about particular societies or
systems of governance? Some, such as Singapore, South Korea

and Denmark (among others), seemed to fare rather well and
certainly better than most. Others, such as Italy, Spain, the US or

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