Has the pandemic changed everything?

 I remember all the bleating shortly after the 9/11 attacks that America would be changed forever, finally united in goodwill among fellow citizens and a unity of national purpose. That let to the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq and eventually to that paragon of American "greatness," Donald Trump. No, 9/11 didn't change things, except how we are screened before boarding airlines (just locking the door to the flight deck would have stopped the 9/11 attacks).


Now, COVID-19 is the new 9/11, spawning endless bafflegab about how we'll be changed forever. I don't buy it. But lets hand the mike to Kevin Drum:

"And while we're on the topic, can we please, once and for all, give up on the "COVID has changed life forever" genre? It hasn't. It's already obvious that things will return almost completely to normal over the next few months and that the experience of living through a pandemic has neither enriched our lives nor taught us to cherish our friends and neighbors even more. All it's done is make us cranky." https://jabberwocking.com/life-is-returning-to-the-old-normal/?fbclid=IwAR1t2KywmC_wk2YR0AnQWuMk4rH2w0iYCK08wH7v2hEOIZNoO9G1hs2YBG8

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