Suspension and the postponement within it seems to be the hallmarks of millions’ lives today. COVID-19, when it confined these millions to their homes, suspended many things, some of which await resolution and others that await follow up and completion. All await clarity. It might be accurate to say that everything that moves on the earth’s surface has been affected by COVID, from work to love, travel etc… No relation will be as it was before the coronavirus. This applies to here as much as it does there.
In suspension and the long wait for what comes next, suspense heightens, and the link between the two words, at least in English, is indicated by their linguistic similarity.
The fact is that the world’s face today resembles that of its people, whom the coronavirus has left wearing masks: as we stare at this face, we are unsure of what we are seeing and what may come out of the scene. Is that really him?
The global economy in crisis leaves us in extreme suspense. We are undergoing the gravest recession in world history, while more than a third of the world’s population are lodged in their homes.
Globalism’s fate hangs in the balance, and all potential outcomes, positive and negative, are plausible.
The decisions that will be taken to bring about some form of economic recovery are all contingent upon COVID’s evolution, and COVID, as we now know, is extremely mutative. The same suspense applies to the economy’s implications for politics and political choices, especially in democratic countries where the people’s will shapes government. What, then, about revolutions and mass mobilizations in light of COVID?
Education also faces many novel and difficult tests: Will the world shift to online learning after more than 1.2 billion students in 186 countries suddenly moved from classrooms to their homes? What does this mean for a whole series of variables, like the expansion of gaps between rich and poor nations and the upper and lower classes within the same country? There is a large array of questions about our relationships with homes, maintaining or discarding university campuses, the new ties between parents and children stuck at home, the concept of friendship, which is customarily closely tied with school and finally, the ties between teachers and pupils. There are also questions about universities and academia and the implications this will have on research, conferences and other activities after their financial capacities declined. It also raises questions academics, who might end up more isolated and aloof, themselves.
Cultural production, in turn, is also in limbo: what culture will be produced tomorrow? What will be published? What will heroes and anti-heroes be like? Cinema is devastated, exhibitions as well; as are non-cultural sectors like sports of all sorts, and so are tourism, services, restaurants and cafes. What about cities and their links to suburbs and the periphery in the next phase? Will the maps of residence change, and what social ramifications would that entail? What about public transportation, which was often blamed for the pandemic and its spread? What about the inequality of men and women’s presence in the workplace, which is likely to exacerbate further? What kind of feminism will emerge after domestic violence rates increased? What new ideas and values will come out of these transformations?
Nonetheless, COVID is not the only factor behind our lives' suspension and the suspense we are living in. Some are linked to the weakness of international intervention and resolve, especially that of the US, and the ensuing proliferation of conflicts, most recently seen in Nagorno-Karabakh. Another factor is the fertile ground for conflict, which is becoming increasingly fertile, between Turkey and Greece, and behind it the European Union, and that between India and Pakistan... These fronts and others raise questions about the new shape these disputed areas, and thus their countries, will take in the future. Moreover, countries have been split by conflicts, revolutions, counter-revolutions, and occupations such that it is no longer easy to assess what they will become. This is especially true for Libya, Yemen, and Syria.
As for the wave of immigration that launched before the most recent crisis, it, in turn, remains subject to much speculation and uncertainty: to what extent will the immigrant youths integrate? What culture? What are populism’s limits? The dangers of racism etc…
No doubt, finding a vaccine for COVID and the US presidential elections are the two most crucial keys to escaping the suspension and state of suspense we find ourselves in. But, in the end, things don’t work like magic, and the transformation process is always slower than anticipated, especially when those anticipating are despondent, hopeless and inclined to cling to magic, as is the case for the vast majority today.
The only thing we know for sure is that the “normalcy” we wish would return to is not what we will be going back to. What is coming will be very different. It will demonstrate that, in the final instance, there is no such thing as natural. We could end up facing a different state of affairs which, after a while, we will come to call “normal” and believe it is.
