Declarations Of “The New Normal”

Starting very early in the pandemic we began to hear about how it was going to change the world forever. Because I didn’t understand why this would ever need to be the case, I immediately became skeptical. Regardless of how I felt about these declarations, I began to notice them more and more throughout the mainstream media, both here in the US and abroad. On April 17, 2020, I typed “the coronavirus pandemic will change the world forever” into my Google search bar and found a lot of articles claiming after the coronavirus pandemic ended the world would be a different place. These are just some of the headlines that came back in the first two pages of the search results. Please take the time to read the important article from MIT Technology Review called “We’re not going back to normal” (also linked below) if you don’t read anything else.

  1. Wall Street Journal: An opinion piece written by Henry Kissinger entitled “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order” – which interestingly is not behind the paywall. Question… Is Kissinger ever NOT talking about the New World Order? 
  2. Foreign Policy: “How the World Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic” The title of this article was altered from its original title, “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Change the World Forever” …That was moved into a subheadline, but the original title is still visible by scrolling the mouse over the open tab at the top of the screen. 
  3. MIT Technology Review: “We’re not going back to normal”
  4. Politico: “Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How.”
  5. The Verge: “Microsoft Thinks Coronavirus Will Forever Change The Way We Work and Learn”
  6. Reuters: “As fever checks become the norm in coronavirus era, demand for thermal cameras soars”
  7. Axios: “The coronavirus outbreak will forever change the world economy”
  8. Reason: “Can You Be a Libertarian in a Pandemic?”
  9. Washington Post: “How the coronavirus will change our lives forever – from music to politics to medicine”
  10. The UK Times: “How coronavirus will change the world forever”
  11. Buzzfeed: “After The Coronavirus Passes, Your World Will Not Go Back To Normal”
  12. BBC: “How will coronavirus change the world?”
  13. Fortune: “The coronavirus pandemic is changing work forever”
  14. The London Guardian: “‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?”
  15. Vox: “No one can opt out of this pandemic. And that will change us forever.”
  16. Forbes: “The Coronavirus Crisis Has Changed Money Forever” (cashless society promo)
  17. Forbes: “Leadership Will Change Forever After The Coronavirus Pandemic”
  18. Al Jazeera: “Our lives after the coronavirus pandemic”
  19. LA Times: “Coronavirus outbreak will change America forever”
  20. Discover Magazine: “Could We Be Living With COVID-19 Forever?” (found after my original 4/17 search)
  21. CNBC: “13 ways the coronavirus pandemic could forever change the way we work” (found after my original 4/17 search)
  22. UK Daily Mail: “How will America look in a post lockdown world? Time-share playgrounds, parks divided into 6ft by 6ft social distanced squares and working from home could become the norm as states begin to reopen” (found after my original 4/17 search)

I hope you see my point.