Out of nowhere, a tiny virus has exploded into a global pandemic. * It’s delivered a massive shock to a world that is already rife with injustice and inequality. * The repercussions are set to last for years. * To put it another way, we’re facing a shit-storm on a massive scale. * It feels like almost everything has changed. * Overnight, things we’ve taken for granted have just disappeared. * Things that we were told were impossible have suddenly become very real. * And the idea that “there’s no such thing as society” turns out to be a big fat lie. * Nothing is normal. * Our usual routines have been suspended. * The future is unwritten. * Of course the people at the top have a very clear vision of the future. * All they talk about is getting the economy working again. * Our bosses are desperate to push us back into the same old boxes. * The same old shit (with a bit more social distancing). * For many, the disruption has been catastrophic: work has become dangerous; home feels like a prison; loved ones are absent * Thousands have died – many at the hands of a remote and uncaring elite. * And for all of us, life has become much more uncertain. * But at the same time, the disruption caused by coronavirus is an opportunity. * An opening. * The message of disaster is that anything can happen. * But if anything can happen, that means ANYTHING is possible. * The word “aftermath” originally referred to the fresh plants growing after a crop has been harvested. * This pandemic has ripped apart “business as usual” and thrown everything up in the air, giving us the space to try new ways of living together. * It gives us the space to question the assumptions behind a system that only favours a tiny minority. * The aftermath could be something positive, alive, growing – not a stale return to a deadening reality. * Aftermathematics is about looking at a different type of calculation. * Instead of slicing up profits to pay dividends, we could be thinking about the divisions that exist in our society. * Aftermathematics is about multiplying our power, subtracting ourselves from work, starting to stand together as equals. * Rather than return to the misery and inequality of the pre-COVID world, how can we make a life that is better, richer, and more fulfilling for all of us? * Another world is not only possible, it is on its way. * On a quiet day, we can hear it coming…
The ideas explored here have been culled from many places over the years, although we’ve loosely paraphrased from two particular sources: A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo…) and ‘The pandemic is a portal’ by Arundhati Roy (https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-7…).