Oil futures just went down to $5 per barrel. I believe gas prices in the US are now possibly less than $1 per gallon. Wow, what a change one month can make.
We’ve been in quarantine/shelter-at-home in Michigan I think since March 19, which would be just over one month today. While it has felt like 4 years in lockdown, it has been just about 4 weeks. Many people are saying that we will emerge from this with a new normal, that things will never be the same, that this is either the apocalypse or the rebirth.
I seem to think that most things will go back to “normal” after the initial burst of being free from our homes. I believe that once the virus is either 1) not so deadly or 2) eradicated through vaccine, then we will interact and be as social as we were before.
However, maybe it won’t be so simple. I think many of us will be emotionally scarred from this experience. The newfound fear of losing our job overnight, the anger/confusion that we direct towards the government, the sadness of having to had grieved our loved ones from afar.
Perhaps that does take us in new directions. Yes, better tools for remote collaboration. Yes, better tools for detecting and treating viral infections. Yes, better tools for scientific discoveries.
But what about the downsides? Perhaps there will be increased desire for local decision making, not trusting distant institutions that we don’t know. Perhaps there will be increased desire for walled national borders, not wanting “infected foreigners” to taint our lands. Perhaps there will be increased starvation, overdose, suicide, homicide, and other crimes springing from despair, not knowing how else to resolve so much internal pain.
I don’t know what the future holds. Maybe the US is stronger after this, maybe weaker. Maybe global governance is stronger, maybe weaker. Maybe I feel stronger, maybe weaker.
I believe that we have an opportunity to frame this situation as we want. It will have plenty of “bad” things and plenty of “good” things, and I believe we can choose on which we want to focus. Do we want to focus on how the world is falling apart, causing ourselves to feel more fear, anxiety, and hopelessness? Or do we want to focus on how the world is coming together, causing ourselves to feel more joy, gratitude, and hopefulness?
In other words, is oil at $5 per barrel the end of the world or an opportunity for us to come together?
I see the former and I believe the latter.
