随笔一则

王凡往返 · 发表于 2020-12-20 04:02:25

本帖最后由王凡往返于 2020-12-20 04:05 编辑

SAY HELLO TO A NEW ROARIN' 20S

Finally, The Economist has produced a front page article that deserves reading. The author of the year 2020's last cover story, who seems to have some real vision and insight as opposed to previous writers, has made the point that our generation will most likely bring back that long-forgotten ethos of the Roaring Twenties, when survivors of the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic strived to put the ravages of these two unprecedented calamities in human history out of their mind. Having seen enough of iniquities and deaths, people of the Jazz Age felt impelled to live in the present and without inhibition. Thus the 1920s saw Jazz and flappers thriving, consumer demand soaring, and the use of cars, telephones, movies, radio, and electrical appliances booming in the Western world. And it's in this historical context that the author steps in to remind the reader of history's cyclic nature, even as the covid-19 virus rages through the human world, claiming 1.6 million lives (and counting), not to mention that equally significant portion which has gone unrecorded. By invoking a survey conducted by the IMF, the author has made it clear that whenever there is a roaring inferno of war or disease, a whirlwind of novelty and innovation ensues. The 2020 episode may well last for a decade, and go on to influence the rest of the century.

During lockdown and without anything better to do, people tend to ponder an existential question which has challenged the wisest of man since ancient times: what matters most in our lives? A universally convincing answer is nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, the "plague year", a new term coined by The Economist, may have prompted some sage thoughts from those who have narrowly escaped death, or who have witnessed the plight of the bereaved. They would tell you that "life is not to be hoarded, but lived", a principle that The Economist's staff and millions of covid survivors, many still in the grip of "long covid", uphold.

True, life is to be lived, or even squandered. But how to live your post-pandemic lives satisfactorily if covid-19 has become a seasonal flu somewhere down the road, even though a large percentage of the world's population have been mass inoculated. We have to expect a dramatic change in lifestyle, but this time we certainly won't celebrate jazz or talk up young, vivacious flappers; we are going to embrace something real big instead as 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and many other technologies flourish. Come to think of it, just ten years ago, even a tech prophet would not have imagined that real live money of paper would be substituted for good by a phone app.

What goes up must come down. This physical law of gravity discovered then systematized by English scientist Isaac Newton can be reinterpreted today as "what shuts down must open up again". The world economy has been closed for the better part of this "plague year", but it will reopen, slowly but surely, by the grace of God if you will, as the seething sea of desperation and grief settles down. Now stop panicking and batten down in preparation. Here comes the first wave of a completely new Roaring Twenties, 21st century style.