The tyranny of "normal"

Early pandemic solidarity was an anomaly in modern life. Our political leaders want us to forget it ever happened.

As our governments and media pushed us back into virus-laden offices and schools, they did so under the banner of “back to normal.”

“Normally”, in the US, people do not automatically receive paid sick leave.

“Normally,” in the US, people are not entitled to work from home, no matter if their job can be done remotely.

“Normally,” in the US, vaccines, medications, healthcare of any sort; none of it is provided by the government for free.

And “normally,” people do not look out for one another, protect the vulnerable by participating in collective measures, or work together to improve social outcomes by perceiving themselves as part of a larger whole.

All of the early pandemic-era measures were emergency measures; stop gaps to keep the healthcare system from collapsing entirely. But once the state had what it wanted- enough breathing room for its institutions to remain functional, if barely- it scrambled to snatch away what it had distributed, both materially and philosophically.