I was skeptical before reading this. Now I’m even more skeptical. It seems like we’d just be letting the pandemic define us. While my life has changed, in the short scheme, my grand scheme really hasn’t. We may see changes in the world after it but this doesn’t seem to be a very compelling case.
The world changed because of Covid, it also changed because of 9/11, it also changed because of the fall of the USSR, it also changed because of the EU, Mao, Yugoslavia, Mandella, Ghandi, Genghis Khan, Diocletian etc^etc^etc^etc^etc
It turns out the World changes a heck of a lot on a rather frequent basis.
"A testament to the strength of a system is the measure of what intensity of challenge it can endure and survive. The challenges of the past year have exposed a lot of flaws, which will take time to fix, nationally and globally, independently and collaboratively.
Arguably this reasoning could have been applied at various other moments in recent history, such as the end of WW2 or 9/11. We often speak of a post-world war era or a post-9/11 era.
What is different now is that all of humanity has found itself on the same side against a common adversary. The virus was first detected and its genetic code mapped around the new year transition of 2020. 2020 now becomes the new year zero. This year of uncertainty found us living “out of time”. We engaged in a “global arms race” ... to create a cure."
I do agree, the world is always changing. But I don't see how that's an argument for sticking to the same timeline. I think it's a good reminder that we can choose how to count our time and define new beginnings. Honestly, would you rather live in 2021 or year one of a new era? In a sense it's arbitrary, but it would feel different psychologically. How would you prefer to feel?
I love the idea of a future historian looking back at the timeline of human history, seeing immense suffering (including worse pandemics), and laughing at us for thinking our struggle is important enough to create a new era. Perhaps they’ll just accept it (like how we accept year 0), but the thought is very entertaining.