As I only started this blog a day or so ago there's been no mention yet of covid, but given it's the biggest thing happening in the world it would b remiss of me not to share some perspectives.
Personally it hasn't affected me too much, mentally, physically, or financially. I guess the biggest change has been the absence of live talks which prior to covid I was doing regularly, at least a couple a week, sometimes more.
Ironically the biggest effect of this has been physical health, not that it is bad. But getting out to the car, then out from the car, walking to the venue, standing for an hour or an hour and a half talking, all add to the positive effects on the body of movement and standing. During covid I've almost certainly been sitting much longer than usual, which is not a good thing for my body.
I haven't put on any weight however; indeed, through a concentrated effort over three weeks I lost half a stone, and was only a stone overweight to begin with. I've put on two pounds since then but am still in good shape as far as my weight is concerned.
The very fact that these are the first things that come into my mind is instructive. My health is the most imprtant thing when I cosnider covid. Therefore it's not lockdown, it's not missing people, it's not a financial hit.
Ironically financially we made a partnership with a major charity just last month, which guarantees our basic income for the rest of this year, and has a likelihood for that to continue for the next three years, which would give a stability of income that I haven't known really since 2002.
The biggest moment by moment impact has been watching the news and daily updates on the figures especially here in Scotland but also UK-wide, and in the USA. The forthcoming US election also plays into this global crisis, with a ghoulish compulsion to see what's going on. That's probably much more unhealthy for me psychologically than covid though my mindfulness does to a large degree neutralise it with the wider view that human history has survived Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc, two world wars and so on, therefore at some point the Trump years will go down - whether one term or two - as just another trhing in history.
The big news events always grasp us and seem to define us but really they are just blips in a lifetime of moments, most of which are pleasant if we can switch our mindset to notice them.
There are two big effects of the virus. The deaths and serious illnesses for individuals and their families. This has been kept to a minimum in most places thanks to the wonders of scientific knowledge and thinking.
The downside is that to control the spread the world's economy has been heavily hit. This has not yetr had the full extent of its effect as governments have been funding people's livelihoods as much as they reasonably can. But we don't know how long this constrained economic situation will gone on, and each month it does creates further debt in all the countries. At some point all that debt is going to have to be repaid, which will in turn mean greater taxes, which means less spending, which means a negative effect on the economy. It will be interesting to see how governments try to create that sensitive balance in the years, even decades to come.
When the economy suffers, people suffer, especially those who are already on the lowest incomes. It will be interesting to see if any innovations emerge, or a speeding up of things like AI which has the power to replace whole swathes of jobs. In which case do we really have to move to concepts like Citizens Income. The wider ramification is that AI does all jobs so everyone just gets a state income. Now it won't come to that but the extent to which it moves in that direction s not yet clear.
The other potentially great innovation area is climate change-related. Can we make use of this big ppause in our economic activity to restart our economies in a much greener way? Can we make the necessary state investments to boost economic activities through environmentally friendlier infrastructure projects like rail and cycle transport works, work-from-home incentives, etc?
So everything affects everything else. Covid is a big part of that but only a part of it. We shall see at some unknown date how it all pans out.
Comments
Post a Comment