Tomorrow Is Here
This is a challenging but disturbing question. Corona has changed the future of our lives. Today we have to make far-reaching and important decisions on how imaginatively we can adapt to the situation around us.
In fits of anger we used to shout, Get out of my sight. I don t want to see your face. Shut up and Get lost. Today if you say these words it can mean that you want to protect yourself and they are not necessarily told out of anger.
How we adapt or fail to adapt will determine our future. We are overwhelmed by this change. The common everyday matters, the products we buy, the prod- ucts we discard, the places we live in, the future of friendship and family life and many more lifestyles will all be changed.
The virus has made people think of strange new cultures, new lifestyles are being investigated and even marriage is no more an instant decision one can take. Of course, with faces covered with masks, the love at first sight has nearly disappeared from the romantic dictionary.
Corona has overturned institutions shifted our values and it shrivels our roots. Change is the process by which the future invades our life. Today, we are living, breathing and experiencing it.
Too much change in too short a time has created shattering stress and disorientation in individuals. Earlier we used to talk about educating people for change and preparing people for the future. But corona has proved that we virtually know nothing about how to do it.
The only fallout seems to be virtual meetings that are taking place in Rotary, businesses, schools, colleges, governments and nearly everywhere when some- one wants to see someone else ! The platforms offering these facilities over the internet are happy and probably making money too.
This scenario is changing so rapidly and exposing an environment to which human beings have never been exposed earlier. The incessant demand for change seen in the past four months makes us believe that the future has arrived too soon.
Children, starting from primary school level, are no longer childlike. They are hooked to the latest gadgets for over hours a day attending some class or the other.
Adults who are above 60 have become like children and are learning to handle new fechnology to talk to their families and friends elsewhere in the same street and dll over the world. The IT Geeks behave like anarchists, who beneath their unwashed shirts and pants, attend to office work from home with a pay cut that ranges from 10 to 50 percent in many cases. The online buyers of materials are bewildered and frustrated at deliveries being delayed or cancelle since there was no one to deliver.
This is where the Delivery Drones can come in handy: The government must understand that foodstuff and many other things can be delivered to consumers without human interface and remove the obstacles that prevent the flying of drones for such purposes. When, the narrow mind of bureaucracy is refusing to learn or allow technology to do its work, there is no hope for such industries to come up. Automation itself represents the greatest change in the whole history of mankind and the effects of the technological revolution will be deeper than any change we have seen till now.
There have been wars, plagues, diseases and other such calamities that have rocked the world earlier. But they were within a limited border and with corona the boundaries have burst. It has altered the texture of our existence, hammering our lives and psyches into new and unfamiliar shapes.
In Rotary, we wanted to be where the action is. The new Rotary year brought in a highly accelerated pace of life, at least for the first three months. Today Ro- tarians seem to be feeling anxious, tense and even uncomfortable when the pace has slowed down. The period of lockdowns threw up incomprehensible conflicts between generations, between parents and children, between husbands and wives and between people living in so-called gated communities. The different response of people to the pace of life they encountered was the reason for such conflicts. So how do we manage this in the future if we have to live with corona?
What will the Rotary clubs do in the next few months of even till the end of June 2021 if the situation continues like this? Let us see. Club service may not be very much affected since the members have had the opportunity to connect via Zoom and other such platforms. But when it comes to the question of induct- ing new members who want to be a part of a society, the challenge will be to make them feel that virtual meetings provide the same fellowship. The other av- envues of services can also have unique challenges since the hands-on-service projects may be delayed or even shelved. Providing health care facility will be in focus but probably limited to procuring materials through global grants and donating them to hospitals and such institutions.
The Rotary Foundation is well placed to receive funds since there may be considerable savings for the clubs which were earlier splurging money get-togeth- ers. This period can be used by the TRF Chair of every club to educate the members about TRF. The President and Secretary can spend time educating mem- bers about MOP and Code of Policy of Rotary International.
Encouraging newer vocations for those who are displaced is the need of the hour. This may be in the form of encouraging members hire workers for bs. housekeeping in their offices and residential complexes with more focus on preventing infections. Getting more teachers on-line to help students speak Eng- lish which is needed for competitive examinations will make the teachers earn some money from home.
Rotary meetings in public places will become rare for at least now and so the public image of Rowan can be built in a conscious manner by clubs in a district pooling their resources and sponsoring programmes that benefits the educational needs of the children.
The internationality of Rotary will have to be made stronger and you can invite your sister-clubs to attend your meetings and other events on-line.
We, as educated citizens, have to guide our destiny before some other unseen threat comes by. A challenge of such Propertion as corona demands a dra- matically new, a more deeply rational response towards life. Anticipating probable future is one part of what we should be doing.
One of the most recent phenomena has been the sudden proliferation of organised shud of religion and the realization that yeu are at the mercy of some un- known force and only some divine force can save your life. The spate of questions about life and the incapacity of humans, however wealthy they are, to face a pandemic is frending daily in various social media.
The forces Buesping us towards a super fast changing future can no longer be channeled by bankrupt leaders in the gociely and in any organisation. This is the time to build leaders. Can you live in a society that is out of control? We cannot. By considering, not merely this corona but other such viruses and their impact on human behaviour we have to gain control over the pace of change that seems to be taking place. But remember, that continuity, a factor in human life, is an important ingredient for us to survive and Rotary to survive.
Ashok Mahajan