ENDEAVOR
Nine days before Christmas, there is a muted expectation that this year’s observance --- we are a tad short of being able to characterize it as a celebration --- would be more expansive than in 2020. Coronavirus has indelibly altered our mindsets. It would take some time before we could recapture our sense of excitement and exuberance. Truly we have been tempered by almost two years of quarantine that has reframed our appreciation of reality.
At about this time last year, Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a serial entrepreneur-founder of nine companies, came out with a slim volume on Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity in which he endeavored to make sense of the major changes that the pandemic had caused.
He invokes Aristotle’s maxim that humans experience change, not time: “What we call time is simply our measurement of the difference between “before” and “after.” “Before” refers to March 2020, the onset of Covid-19 as a global pandemic. “After” begins at the end of the same month as new realities unfolded: lockdown, contagion, testing and tracing, intubation, death by the hundreds and thousands and into the millions.
Then he quotes Lenin: “Nothing can happen for decades, and then decades can happen in weeks.” Technology drives “The Great Acceleration.” Indeed, digital transformation happened at warp speed.
Impelled by necessity, people relied on digital processes to sustain day-to-day activities. Internet connectivity facilitated working from home. Citing Bank of America and US Department of Commerce data, he reports that within a period of eight weeks (March and April 2020), the degree of e-commerce penetration in the US equaled the volume attained from 2004 to 2014.
Other stellar examples: Apple leap-frogged from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in 20 weeks (March to August 2020) after taking 42 years to reach the trillion-dollar milestone; Tesla, the electric car maker, surpassed the total value of Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler-Benz and Honda combined.
In four easy-to-read chapters he described four phenomena spawned by COVID 19.
First, the strong became much stronger as cash reigns supreme. Second, The Four --- namely: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google --- flex the power of bigness, towing themselves and five other Big Tech companies to a nearly $2 trillion increase in market value within the same five-month period in which the rest of the world fared worst. Third, the Disruptability Index, an amalgam of a handful of factors, swept across the economy affecting key sectors such as health care and higher education. Fourth, he makes a granular analysis of the disruption in higher education and presents detailed proposals for paving forward pathways.
In the final chapter, The Commonwealth, he writes a manifesto for the remaking of capitalism: “The chance to participate in a system that rewards smarts and hard work is a beacon for industrious and ambitious people globally.” Government could enable citizens to become more mindful of “connecting our individual actions with the broader world or thinking long term.”
He calls for an end to American exceptionalism --- probably a derivative of Donald Trump’s mantra, Make America Great Again --- that has resulted in unwanted “comorbidities” in the socio-political milieu highlighted by the mistaken notion that isolation would bring about immunity.
He deplores that prosperity in America has simply widened the gulf between rich and not rich. The libertarian guarantee of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is belied by reality: “Americans live shorter lives, are less free, and less successful in our pursuit of happiness than our European counterparts.”
Reflecting on the perils of populism spawned during the Trump era, he believes that the way out of “the tragedy of the commons” is for people to get out and vote --- which the Americans did in record numbers last November 2020. Indeed, elections could be a great equalizer. Yet, lingering disaffection among those who feel that changes in regime do not really bring about significant change or improvement spawns skepticism.
He calls for the organization of the Corona Corps, “a volunteer army of around 180,000 composed of 18- to 24-year olds, trained and equipped to fight the virus --- and reshape the trajectory of their own lives.”
He ends on a note of optimism: “The generations that endure and observe the pain are best prepared for the fight.” He pins hope on a maturing generation that is more inclined toward cooperation and shared purpose. He urges readers to rally behind the ideals of “generosity, grit, innovation, and a willingness to sacrifice for one another and for future generations.”
Indeed, the pandemic has created many opportunities for renewal and revitalization. As we slowly emerge from nearly two years of reclusion, there is a sense that we would be stepping into a gentler and kinder milieu where hope abounds.