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A30 FEATURE
Tuesday 28 July 2020
A troubling pandemic thought: Are THESE the good old days?

By WILLIAM J. KOLE a beehive of activity and
Associated Press human connection.
HOPE VALLEY, R.I. (AP) — "NO YOGA," reads a plastic
News articles don't carry sign out front. "BE HEALTHY
Hollywood-style viewer rat- BE HAPPY BE SAFE," it adds,
ings or trigger warnings. though the hamlet — like
Maybe this one should. thousands of other small
But consider this: What if towns nationwide — is
THESE are the good old powerless to help its people
days? accomplish any of those
Depressing as that might things.
seem after the coronavi- For businesses and con-
rus pandemic has claimed sumers alike, a new order
well over 630,000 lives appears to be dawning
worldwide, cost tens of mil- — one in which the risk of
lions their jobs and inflicted viral outbreaks increas-
untold misery across the ingly is seen as perpetual,
planet, it's entirely possible not a one-off. "These times
— increasingly likely, some we're in right now — peril-
say — that things will get ous as they are — will soon
worse before they get bet- be looked back on fondly
ter. as 'the good old days.' Pre-
Americans in particular pare accordingly," tweet-
have been optimists by A man wearing a mask leaves a gift shop on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Hope Valley, R.I. ed Columbia University phi-
nature for the better part Associated Press losopher Rory Varrato.
of four centuries. But even entire industries — setting The website Quartz.com
here, a bleak dystopian vi- off a global Great Depres- asked experts in business,
sion is emerging in some sion, Part Two? technology, food, the arts
corners. It's not pretty. The pandemic is "going to and other sectors how the
It imagines a not-too-dis- get worse and worse and world will be different in five
tant future where we'll all worse," World Health Orga- years because of the coro-
look back with nostalgia at nization chief Tedros Ad- navirus. Their responses?
2020 as a time when most hanom Ghebreyesus told Largely grim.
of us had plenty of food reporters last week. "There "My bet is that movie the-
and wine, could get many will be no return to the old aters won't exist," said one,
of the goods and services normal for the foresee- University of Pennsylvania
we needed, and could able future." Even President psychologist Adam Grant.
work from home at jobs Donald Trump, in a notable The pandemic has pum-
that still paid us. departure from his gener- meled airlines and the hos-
"This could be as good as ally insistent stance that the pitality industry. The Ameri-
it gets, so let's take plea- An American flag flies near a sign outside the First Baptist Church U.S. has the outbreak under can Hotel and Lodging As-
sure in what we have now," on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Hope Valley, R.I. control, said the "nasty hor- sociation warns that more
Katherine Tallman, the CEO Associated Press rible" virus "will probably un- than 8,000 U.S. hotels could
of the Coolidge Corner fortunately get worse be- close for good as early as
Theatre, an indie cinema in the economy, threatening the numbers going in the fore it gets better." September. Restaurants
Brookline, Massachusetts, people's health and liveli- wrong direction, and col- Margaret Hetherman, a also are imperiled: Without
told a recent Zoom round- hoods for the foreseeable lective confidence badly New York City-based writer government intervention,
table. future. shaken, those given to ru- and futurist, thinks some Democratic U.S. Sen. Ed-
The pandemic continues to That's bad. But in online fo- inous thoughts can be for- of our darker pandem- ward Markey of Massachu-
buffet the planet economi- rums and on social media, given for thinking the worst: ic experiences — things setts cautioned this month,
cally, dashing hopes that futurists see the potential — What if humanity's frantic like fighting over canned "there could be an extinc-
the worst of the joblessness for worse. Much worse. efforts to produce a viable goods and hoarding toilet tion experience."
might be behind us. Their musings aren't for the vaccine take longer than paper — could foreshad- Politics, too, cloud the hori-
For 18 consecutive weeks faint of heart. envisioned, allowing the vi- ow more dire years ahead zon and moods. For some,
now, more than a million It's likely that few, if any, of rus to kill indiscriminately in if global warming contin- a dystopian future includes
Americans have sought their forecasts will come to the interim? ues unabated."We're get- four more years of Trump's
unemployment benefits. pass. This time next year, — What if that coincides ting a taste of what could chaotic presidency; for
New infections have been we may well marvel at how with a climate calamity be ahead if we don't get others, the election of Joe
surging in states like Florida swiftly this existential threat that ruins crops and shat- control of ourselves here. Biden and a sudden lurch
and California that power was vanquished. But with ters supply chains, stripping The empty shelves could back to the left.
supermarket shelves bare be just the beginning," she As if all that isn't enough
of much more than hand said. "It's hard to imagine, to bring down the room,
sanitizer and toilet paper? but the climate crisis upon people love to share word
— For all our kvetching us is probably going to ren- of random supposed signs
about masks, could we der this a piece of cake by of the apocalypse — things
one day find ourselves hav- comparison." that certainly aren't, like
ing to don hazmat suits just The Rhode Island village the North American inva-
to leave the house? of Hope Valley mirrors the sion of "murder hornets"
— Is it such a stretch to new COVID-19 landscape. and that squirrel in Colora-
imagine the economic fall- More is closed than is open, do that was found to have
out moving beyond jobs including the local Grange been infected with bubon-
and 401(k)s and wiping out community center, usually ic plague.q