The freedom to go about one’s daily life facilitated by modern day’s ease of transportation and availability of goods was something many people in first-world countries took advantage of. Not often does one repeatedly have to go to a store in hopes of finding toilet paper or find themselves in their home for such a long period of time it seems more like a prison. Having a virus spread across the world made many lose the freedom and access to goods they took for granted. That freedom has been replaced by fear for loved ones and what were to happen if they contracted the virus. “Fear is the cruelest of assassins: it never kills, but it keeps you from living,” (Virilio 63). Due to COVID-19, many people who recognize the implications of this situation are now living in fear, hesitant to leave their house and see family. Their state of living is far from normal, but a new state of normalcy is developing for them. One where we revert to being confined in walls and all interaction occurs within these walls or on a screen.
While we are still able to connect with many people, there is still an experience of less interconnection with the rest of the world. This is due to the lack of face-to-face interactions, proving that technology cannot replace humanity’s desire to feel connected. Although many of us do experience benefits from having this digital form of interaction to keep us as in touch with the rest of the world that we can be, it is not everything. Additionally, the world now seems to be a larger place once more due to restricted travel. Before, we could imagine flying across the country within half a day, relaxing on a cruise ship going to another country or traveling to another continent without too much thought. Now, the separation created by many miles has begun to feel substantial once again as that access to transportation and connections to other places was taken away. The idea of space we held, that “the site is defined by relations of proximity between points or elements,” has temporarily been replaced with “what could very roughly be called medieval space: the space of emplacement,” (Foucault 23).
We have taken a step back in time in how we view space due to the partial loss of interconnection and efficiency of travel. Additionally, the government’s travel bans and quarantine orders add to this affect by restricting the acts of daily life that one can go about doing and the services they can receive. In many places it may feel equivalent to a house arrest of sorts because the only permissible reasons for leaving are work and needs related. Space has become of emplacement once more where our stability is reliant upon how slowed down society has become. This affects members of society mentally and the economic structure they rely upon. Stocks continue to drop, people continue to stock up on coveted goods and society seems to slow down to merely allow existence while we struggle through this time.
Although this situation is unprecedented in the lives of many who are living through it, for the time being we have to learn to accept the chaos around us by doing what we can individually to stop the spread of the virus and commit to providing what services we can. Suddenly, mortality seems more evident to many, except members of the younger generations who have adopted an ignorant mentality. They may be subject to citing a lack of experiencing the detrimental impacts of their actions as justification for ignorance. Da Vinci says something interesting about this when writing “Let Experience alone, and rather turn your complaints against your own ignorance,” (Da Vinci 6). Many are still in the stage of discovering they are not invincible and discovering their roles in society and COVID-19 has introduced something that either furthers that discovery or increases the ignorance. While da Vinci may have depicted man as being the perfect form, this shock to the world reminds us that we are not invincible, but very human. The virus is not within our control, causing many to feel helpless, suspended in a limbo until normal life can resume.
When normal life can resume, I think society will either have a rush of people taking advantage of their new-found “freedom” or people will still be hesitant to leave their homes. This will likely depend on what is known about the virus at that time and if there is a cure available. Assuming that a cure is found, it would not be unlikely that there would be an influx of people at vacation destinations–basically anywhere but their homes where they were cooped up for months. Transportation of people will therefore rise exponentially if people feel that they are safe, but transportation of some goods will go down when people stop feeling the need to stock up on things like toilet paper. Online services might also see a drop in their recently increased business as people being to find a new enjoyment in previously trivial things like grocery shopping and going to the mall.
Another impact of social distancing ending will be on the way people choose to connect. Space had reverted to the Medieval view of emplacement but will come back to a proximity concept. The world will seem smaller when forms of travel we have come to rely on are once again accepted as safe means of transportation. The idea of visiting a friend will no longer be an absurd, unrealistic, unsafe wish, but something easily achievable through a short drive or longer flight. Although people have come to rely on the internet for their interconnectedness as of late, it truly can never replace face-to-face interaction. This means that the true feeling of joy and interconnectedness people feel will increase after social distancing. Bonds that were weakened with only social media as communication will strengthen again when laughs can be shared over something like lunch or at the gym. The enjoyment and meaning found in these simple acts will be rediscovered and heightened, like a baby seeing the world for the first time, as people realize how much they missed seemingly minuscule parts of their days or small traditions.
Of course, this change will not be permanent either, since the paradigm will continue to shift and evolve into something new over time. Nevertheless, the revert to older ways of thinking temporarily will remain evidential and show that like many concepts, paradigms are continuous. Concepts that paradigms are based on build upon one another as new knowledge is introduced about our world and innovations are created, so it makes sense that paradigms would function similarly. Life may not go back to exactly how it was before the virus, but it open people’s eyes to what they took for granted and sorely missed, encouraging mindsets to change and shift to deal with the dissatisfaction in the world, furthering the transition into the new paradigm.
Sources:
Foucault, Michel. Of Other Spaces = Heterotopias. Www.foucault.info, 2000.
Leonardo, Da Vinci. Leonardo Da Vinci: Notebooks. Edited by Thereza Wells, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Virilio, Paul. Speed and Politics. Routledge, 2007.
Italy: Imagined & Realized 