(Diorama and photo by John Fraim)
John Fraim
I think that in time, there will develop an entire genre or art-form related to our post-pandemic world. Perhaps even approaching the BC and AD designations of the arrival of Christ. The great change will create the condition for the demand of a new word to define this new period we are in right now and the period that we went through that put us into this period.
Yes, it was a period dominated by a pandemic. Yet its effect so far as gone far beyond a medical pandemic. A medical problem has infiltrated all world civilizations. But there are developing so many different things in the world from this pandemic. Many look at the pandemic as destroying so much. One can also view the pandemic as creating so much.
We focus on the deaths from the pandemic. And rightly so. Yet I don’t believe we should focus exclusively on these deaths. Like many in the media do. It’s an activity that leaves little space to see any positive developments in the world.
Positive developments involve events, activities and trends from the pandemic that build their influence into new ideas for society and culture. Behind these ideas, the creation of a new type of story for the post pandemic time we live in. As we suggested above, this period time involves a number of areas in our culture that need consideration by the explorers of this new post pandemic world. Almost all the big department areas from our universities help to define our new world today: sociology, cultural anthropology, psychology, biology, literature, religion.
Optimists or Pessimists
From the pandemic, new leaders will arise. In politics. In the arts. In media. In business. They will have much in common. They will create new industries, new art forms. They will lead these new businesses and industries and might be labeled (for now) Post Pandemic Entrepreneurs. Just as the period we are going through does not have an adequate name, neither does the new type of hero operating in this environment.
I think whether you believe what I’m saying depends on one of a few views of the world you hold right now. In a basic way, it seems that the pandemic has brought about a new type of optimists and pessimists. These two perspectives dominate much thought. It is what all of the great business books and sales books have told us for a hundred years. The optimist is the great innovator and salesman and entrepreneur of the world. There have been few great creations from pessimists.
New political party lines might be drawn between pessimists and optimists. I think a new form of vision and optimism will describe the post pandemic businesses and entrepreneurs that start them. Four months into the pandemic lock-down, the outlines of the new world are still hazy. But outlines of new forms are slowly coming into view.
The Outlines of the New World Are Still Hazy.
The new post pandemic companies in America will not be defined by writers who observe with words but rather entrepreneurs who do with actions. Some of these actions are starting up now. There has been much time for reflection in the past few months of lock-down. This reflection is slowly forming new visions for businesses in the post pandemic world. The outlines are still hazy but new forms are coming into view.