- Some of the slogans surrounding covid-19 are not realistic
By: Umar Sheraz
Narratives have the persuasive power to strongly influence how people and nations think and act. Narratives embed within themselves particular power relationships and seduce nations and individuals into thinking, creating value and justifying a particular course of action. There are two damning narratives which are essentially framing the global discourse and power relationships in regards to the covid-19 pandemic.
The first critical narrative is the ‘war against covid-19’. We have become accustomed to politicians blaring endlessly about the long war against corona or the media headlines about “doctors battling at the frontline”. In a recent interview for the Journal of Futures Studies, Dr Peter Black, one of the top epidemiologists in the world, discussed how the use of the war metaphor discounts or limits the number of options which become available to address the challenge. Who are we at war against? The current chain of events is a co-evolutionary process in terms of the human population and a virus. Our much-trumpeted foe, the novel Coronavirus does not strategize to beat the human race, nor hold everyday briefings with its generals to wreak havoc on humanity. In retrospect, it is ignorance, arrogance and human activity that is solely the cause of the situation that we are struggling against. Given this war has been waged against an unprecedented foe, it is no wonder that global leadership has usually been either non-existent, confused, or sometimes even harmful for not taking necessary action at the right time
And sadly the biggest casualty of war is the human capital which becomes the fuel of the war engines. So the struggle we are engaged in, should be against the demons of our own greed, avarice and indifference towards the Earth’s ecosystem and habitats. How we exorcise these demons will essentially decide how this pandemic pans out and the sort of world that emerges from it.
It is going to be a long and weary global struggle ahead. Softening up our narratives could make a post-corona world more humanitarian, rather than a victim of opportunistic bucket lists and war chants
This narrative has special meaning for Pakistan, because as a nation, war has been a popular yet over-used slogan and rallying point over the past 4 decades. So for the past 40 years, we have been waging Jihad, war against terrorism, war against inflation, war against corruption (Ehtesaab) and war for change (Tabdeeli). Our leaders need to realize that the current lax attitude of our general public is a function of this war-weariness and a change in narratives is the need of the day.
The second narrative is the term “opportunity” and the world finds itself being bombarded by suggestions of there being an opportunity from every segment of society. This in itself is problematic as the people who see opportunity, eventually become “opportunistic”. Once the opportunity mindset gets etched into the national and public psyches, there is scant regard to the alternative ways of thinking on the other side of the horizon and they eventually become the monster that they set out to fight. So we find that a once-in-a-generation chance to have a unified vision of a preferred global future is being hampered by opportunists bent on taking advantage of the situation, settling old scores and taking cheap shots at other worldviews. So Donald Trump’s tantrums against China and doctors, the Corona Jihad movement against Muslims in India, the divergence due to nationalism in the European Union, the defiance of the clergy in Pakistan, to name a few, smack of unsound thought-processes and opportunism. They are firmly entrenched in the minds of those attempting to push their agendas, and do not have anything to do with the new post-pandemic reality. It is unfortunate that a once-in-a-generation chance of a global reset button; our narratives are becoming the biggest hurdle in a unified tackling of this global pandemic. And in the creation of a post-pandemic reality better than the one we have.
The plausible future also seems to be driven by these two narratives, as once a narrative has taken hold it can be very difficult to shake off. That is at least until an even more compelling ‘counter-narrative’ is introduced, to reframe the issue. Instead of the war metaphor, there are other narratives which are much more useful for us to think about our preferred future, which is very different from anything to do with war. We could talk about the “Coronavirus movement”, similar to freedom movements which united all and sundry towards a common goal and cause. The other change in narrative could be replacing “opportunity” with “possibility”. This helps to accommodate other world views, experimentation and backup plans in case of failure. Anyhow, a pandemic should not e an opportunity, not one which has been bought with so many lives (287,000 worldwide by Tuesday evening).
It is going to be a long and weary global struggle ahead. Softening up our narratives could make a post-corona world more humanitarian, rather than a victim of opportunistic bucket lists and war chants.
