Whatever
it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a
halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and
forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future
to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture
exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance
to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically,
pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their
world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between
one world and the next. We
can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice
and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers
and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with
little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for
it. ~ Arundhati Roy