I jogged, looking for sweat and sunshine while wearing a mask. It's a bit tricky too – but it has prompted a new habit
And, when later sitting in the rocking chair, reaching for Arnold J Toynbee's book Change and Habit, The Cellenge of Our Time (1966/1992), suddenly appeared the title of my article above: what you do these days is an important part in the history of your life. You are in the days when writing is underlined!
Your days are your history. If we don't pause for a moment, maybe we won't find that sentence. Because, your days are routine. In routine, you often don't realize that, your days are your history. That's not wrong. Because, in routine, there are habits. But, aren't we taking a break today? We spend a lot of time in each other's homes. And that, precisely a heroic act!
History moves in change – no matter how small it is. When a habit is interrupted by a great force, the usual, the obsolete, are forced by the new, inevitably. Old habits shift. History moves. Often unexpected.
If Toynbee, the great historian, was still "happy," he would probably note that a pandemic is a great force that demands, if not triggers, major change. A pandemic, in this case, is not just a disease that can be explained scientifically and medically, on an intercontinental scale.
It is a historical phenomenon. History is often triggered by great forces whose presence is sudden, unexpected – hardly ever seen before. There are many unseen things that are commonly noticed lately. This is what often makes policy makers unable to precede the will. Invisibility and uncertainty often get the wrong response – at first.
The view that a pandemic is a major force may be overly political – but change is political, inevitably. History requires politics. Even history, oftentimes, is politics itself. Toynbee is a historian who does not avoid the context of the great struggles that have arisen in history, but he is always optimistic, as he puts it: "The only real struggle in the history of the world ... is between the vested interest and social justice." Limited interest, no better than social justice.
Recent historian Yuval Noah Harari wrote an article on The Financial Times (21/3/20), “The World After Coronavirus". According to him, humanity in our current generation is facing its biggest global crisis. The decisions taken can have a huge impact on the future. What kind of world will we live in after the storm passes? Humanity will survive, most of us will survive. However, we will live in a different world.
A different world? What kind of world is he? What aspects have changed? These questions require imagination. Future history requires a solid base of imagination. This is what distinguishes it from past history which requires interpretive sophistication. Now we need both interpretation – as Toynbee calls it – and imagination, which is prominent in Harari's books, especially Homo Deus.
We can take a picture of the post-Covid-19 world from a philosophical imagination that has a human context. What kind of world is post-Covid-19 from a human-based perspective?
The answer is reflected in what we do these days. Our history today. In the future, what we do will continue to be interpreted and reinterpreted. When many countries carry out regional quarantine (lockdown), limiting the movement of humans to and from various places, the earth also "rests". Some observations from space show a different view on our earth. Clear skies, suppressed pollution. The pandemic gives the earth a chance to "breathe". However, that does not mean that the earth will continue to be fresher. Everything still depends on human behavior.
Post-Covid-19 human behavior has changed. The positive, the habit of maintaining health, discipline and caution. What is recommended during the pandemic, is a reference for changing habits. Economic habits have also changed. The economics of "seven fat cows and seven skinny cows" in the story of the Prophet Yusuf, are increasingly realizing their relevance. In essence, saving is done just in case, when famine and plague (pagebluk) terjadi.
Social solidarity also finds its reference during the pandemic. Humans are social creatures, with each other struggling to create better relationship patterns. Cooperation is more important than conflict. However, that does not mean there will be no conflict and war. There is at least one valuable lesson, the human war against disease requires mutual cooperation.
During the pandemic, we are forced to learn to be more empathetic in digitally communicating socially. Each other, remind each other that communication ethics are enforced. Perhaps in the future, the impact of the development of humanitarian empathy during the pandemic will leave a mark and we will need each other more for cooperation. Humanity base.
Actions in society, will not be separated from it. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a new experience that is the same among people on earth. They both feel that they share the same fate, work hand in hand through strategies that require the cooperation of all parties, to fight against Covid-19. This will grow a new nationalism that is global in nature, or global nationalism that involves the emotions of all the citizens of the world.
Awareness to be a good citizen of the world, will also continue to surface intensified by religious leaders. They have an important role in socializing how harmony is formed and maintained, because in essence each other is an entity that needs each other. Religion, which does not conflict with science, will strengthen faith and solidarity between people.
The philosophy of humanism or humanity has a chance to be popular again. However, it is not just a view that relies on human abilities, but is collaborated with aspects of spiritualism. Spirituality will not be displaced by the domination of the understanding of the importance of science. During a pandemic, spirituality complements science. Without spirituality, and mere observance of science, the human condition would simply be lame. Inner wealth and spiritual treasures are actually needed during a pandemic. And, it will scar later.
Post-pandemic, there will be major changes in global, national, and local political strategies. There will be a new balance following the existence of a variety of new needs in the global political order. Also, inevitably, social scientists will redefine leadership issues, and formulate new axioms that will become popular.
However, we can also consider the post-Covid-19 world, which has not changed too much. Old habits reappear. The conflicted, still continue. In fact, there will be further more complex patterns of conflict. The world is evolving into increasingly sophisticated digital traditions. Surveillance capitalism (surveillance capitalism) akan bangkit kembali.
Countries will struggle, and one by one they will rise from the economic conditions affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pattern of post-emergency leadership will emerge again. The public has noted well, the leadership style needed, precisely because it gets direct references when the pandemic occurs.
In summary, the post-Covid 19 world is a new world formed from human struggles to save their civilization. The world that is formed is a world that is awakened from a number of valuable lessons, when humanity is in solidarity and synergized against an invisible enemy.
There will be new economic patterns. Also changes in political behavior. Public policy science will also formulate new things. Legal products will be more anticipatory in responding to emergency conditions. Cultural products will also be more varied in exploring the themes of humanity and civilization.
Because the central theme of the fight against Covid-19 is humans, the theme of human-based development has resurfaced. However, digitalization and automation are inevitable, stakeholders still place the human dimension, in the number one position. We hope that a different world post-Covid-19 is a better world, a more dignified civilization.
This description can be extended. Still, our imaginations about the future, the exact events, are limited. Assumptions can shift quickly, distorting predictions.
Today is a historic day in your life. The day when, we are “pressed”, lying down, surrounded. And usually other historical days, these days are records, and later become important material for historians to interpret, how you are one of the entire population of the world who is experiencing a pandemic.
