We’ve all heard—and at this point, probably glazed over while hearing—the word “unprecedented” at least once or twice lately. I’m only starting to realize now that, in most contexts, it was a misused and fey platitude used to describe a frightening scenario that we didn’t know what else to call. Labels serve an important function in helping us to make sense of, and feel safe during, what’s happening around us, and we had to call the sudden upheaval of life as we knew it something. But it wasn’t exactly unprecedented.
There was, and still is, quite a bit of anxiety about the state of things, and much of that is necessary and rational, but hardship also doesn’t get made better by the idea of COVID-19 resulting in unprecedented realities… and it’s not that unprecedented. I find the past comforting when it’s used to better understand the present.
The 1973 oil crisis, the Spanish flu, the World Wars: these are three examples on a much longer list of crises where peoples’ lives were suddenly and dramatically changed and threatened. Of note, our most basic needs of safety, food, shelter, and health were threatened, which is scary. It makes you realize that you’re one piece of sand on an ever-shifting bluff, and that, at any moment, a strong gust can sweep you to a new place. But you physics majors out there know that what swipes your feet out from under you will bring you back down—with calmness, hopefully, and not ferocity.
We will all be put back down to what is familiar. Don’t let the possibility that it won’t be the same trick you into thinking this as unprecedented as some narratives and dialogues would suggest.
There are aspects of the unprecedented (particularly around social media and misinformation), but a global pandemic is not unprecedented; neither are economic turmoil, massive unemployment rates, and enormous political unrest.
Yes, it’s hard to stomach, let alone digest. Until I started changing my behaviours in recent weeks to really kick reality in the ass, I was feeling very depressed about it all. But we’ve been through this before and came out changed and stronger, and we can, will, and must do the same here, together, and with critiques according to the errors of the past.