Many people seem to think that the coronavirus is going to change the way we think, feel and behave. We are going to value time and friends and family and no longer prioritise work and money. However, I am more cynical. I am afraid that the picture of us all running hand in hand through poppy fields (in slow motion, of course) doesn't quite hold tight.
We are, after all, human beings and, although we have the capacity to change in the short term, this is not true of the long term. We are the same savages who lived in caves, occasionally killing each other over a chunk of meat and choosing mating partners by knocking them over the head with wooden clubs. Self interest rules.
The impact of the coronavirus has been vastly overestimated, with some comparing it to life in the Second World War, suggesting that when we emerge from it all, we will have discovered who we really are and what we really want. People talk about not wanting life to return to the way it was and that Mother Nature has spoken, showing us that the natural world is far more powerful than the urban one.
But it has not taken long to see litter back on beaches - where do all those masks and plastic gloves have to go? Look at the queues outside shops in the UK and the US; all everyone wants to do is spend, spend, spend. Have we seen the end of war or famine? Have we seen corrupt governments fall?
No. We have seen an outpouring of hatred though. We have seen people dying alone, people being forgotten about or ignored because everyone is so busy with the process of self-preservation, that they have not checked up on their elderly neighbour or that person down the road who lives on their own. if anything, we have seen who we value in society - and it is definitely not the elderly; ageism is the one 'ism' not many will go on marches to protest.
If it's any consolation, it's that the world will continue - as it always does.
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