"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
I no longer have a schedule, and neither does this newsletter
Is it comforting or unsettling how quickly a vastly changed life in a world-shattering situation becomes almost routine? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot this month – you know, the month we will probably collectively refer to as ‘the month everything changed’ for the rest of our lives.
Yes, my life is v. easy, because I am childless and have a job (just got it, actually, and still have it! wildly grateful!) that can be done at home and neither of us are sick over here. But this was a pretty significant disruption to even my privileged life, and I’m already just used to it.
Assuming that I’m not the only one who’s fallen into her own quaroutine (I might be, in which case, sorry for this newsletter), then maybe this is a moment for humanity to recognise that wide-scale change is possible? And not just possible, maybe it doesn’t even need to be hard-fought and hard-won? Maybe we can just, idk, do it? Like how we just stopped flying over night? Or got together and passed a bunch of bills that will ensure physical and economic safety to as many as possible?
But crises can either pull humanity up or send it down a darker path. After the Great Depression, the modern welfare state was formed to protect society’s most vulnerable. After 9/11, wars started and government surveillance of citizens exploded.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, famously said just after his inauguration.
It seems likely that we will emerge from this a world forever changed – just hopefully one where we have acknowledged our interconnectedness and responsibility to each other.
some official health advice
i’m both reading everything and nothing right now
My deepest sympathies to those in isolation with Craigslist roommates. (The Atlantic)
That discomfort you’re feeling is grief.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO OPTIMISE THE APOCALYPSE. Pls send this piece to anyone who is trying to schedule a productive call during your former ‘commuting hours’ because ‘we should try to use that time in some way now!’
Gen Z is ruling the lockdown. (The Atlantic)
The NYT ‘36 hours in …’ column gets a coronavirus version in this guide to spending 36 hours in your own home. Unsure if I should mock this or not.
the z. roohi weekly photo
Zayn is allowed out occasionally & this is a photo from one of those times.
bear content
(click through for the vid, bc it’s excellent)