COVID-19 has just slapped us, for our own good
Lately after just 5 minutes on social media, I need 30 minutes of splitting firewood to ground myself.
This process of phase shift we're going through is bringing the best and worst out of us; like the sudden mass interest in growing food in our backyards as well as people desperate for some sense of control or certainty fighting over toilet paper. This period of tumult and transition will test us, and at times break us, but it will inevitably and eventually make us better humans.
And let me assure you, that the subtleties of the growth and development we are going through right now, might not be obvious.
The best parts of what we are becoming, and going through, are not always social media shareable content. It's in the silent reflection we are going through with all the time on our hands, the family connections reignited by physical distancing, the fact that venues that used to profit off of the sale of alcohol and those that benefit from gambling are shut, the fact that my mum has now learnt to have Zoom meetings for work and doesn't have to drive an hour each way to get to and from her office, as well as the relationships that are healing or the toxic ones that are finally permanently fracturing... In times like these, we really get to understand what actually matters, and what really never did.
Our society was already broken and painful to live in and even witness, the world was poised for collapse and we continued putting shrimps on the barbie, the forests got smaller and species went extinct, and people still let themselves get lost in shopping centres.
As much as the trauma of an economic shutdown might be painful for millions of us in the coming months, it was our own collective complacency that led us to this point of critical systems failure. Millions in Australia now face indefinite joblessness and immediate hunger. Hundreds of millions around the world are actually facing starvation. The virus itself is not going to take anywhere near as many lives as the economic shutdown and the breakdown of supply chains...
And this pain we will feel as a collective in this period of rapid and confusing change is largely due to our complacency. The trauma of this transition is what we were trying to mitigate when we stood up and called ourselves Agents of Social Change. When activists and social justice advocates used to cry out for policy reform and economic restructuring, the masses remained silent. When we begged for the humane treatment of refugees unfairly locked up in detention centres, people turned a blind eye. When mining companies forced Indigenous peoples out of their communities and off of their lands because of resources, we pretended the issue was too complicated for us to understand. When we said the healthcare system, the welfare system and the education system were all overstretched and under-resourced we were called communists, latte-sipping socialists or unemployed greenies.
This phase shift we are in right now will bring about the accelerated collapse of a society that was already not working, and what will follow will be the restructuring of a new world that will have no space for inequality, injustice, materialistic consumerism or prejudice.
We were heading for the abyss and COVID unapologetically slapped us. For our own good, but it will still hurt very much.
It's like being stuck in a fast-moving car when you are feeling car sick; you don't look at the sugar cane rushing past the window, look into the distance at a spot that is still and unmoving. That is how you will find your inner peace and composure. Look into the future and watch the trajectory of society to see where this will all land...
In the meantime, clean your hearts, take deep breaths and spend some time in your garden.
- by Erfan Daliri
About the Author
Erfan Daliri is an author, poet, social change trainer and consultant with a Masters in Communication for Social Change. He has over 15 years of experience working with NGOs, community groups and government agencies in a diverse range of areas, including participatory development, cross-cultural communication, youth empowerment, education, mental health, settlement services, and social justice advocacy.
Erfan is the founding director of Newkind Social Justice Conference and programme coordinator of the National Unity in Diversity Conference. He consults and advises on communication and project design for organisations such as Amnesty International and the Australian Red Cross.
He is particularly passionate about empowering organisations and communities to address issues of social, environmental and economic justice and to help them build a more inclusive, cohesive, sustainable and equitable society. His most recent book Raising Humanity discusses the underlying causes of socio-economic injustice and covers the themes of ecology and economy, resilience, resistance and what it takes to be an effective changemaker.