In what ways can you foresee the COVID-19 pandemic bringing lasting change to the world?

Maybe but for me Merlin, talking to my housemate who said the same thing as he is counselor for special needs kids seeking his master, taught me
Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups

Surely, it has already, and probably for longer than we expect.
But if there is one thing to be said for humanity, we are resilient. As a group, we learn things the hard way, but we do learn. 

I reluctantly sigh...  Well said and I must agree.  
I also have to think, how can we be a group when we are confined to our own brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, etc.  We are followers.  I don't like to think we are but as a race, I must admit, we need someone to lead.  If one person leads in all of our microgroups, we are going to have a lot of chiefs and not enough indians.
If this continues (and I'm taking this to a grotesque extreme) we might even have inbreds.  We all know that IS NOT and DOES NOT have a good outcome, mentally or physically. 
I shudder at the thought of all the damage the self/family containment will do for a "society."  I am more forgiving and willing to share good than many but as a general rule, when you set the stage, people like to be nice to other people.
It is a win/win.
In the worst of situations, some people right here and right now are not comfortable in the company of their families.  It is not good for them or the other family members.
This makes anxiety levels and helplessness fester. :(

We all need to appreciate the sun, the earth, the oceans, and each other.  Yes.  We don't necessairly need to stand so close.  Maybe a little lesson in manners would be helpful in this time of distress.
Niceness travels just as well as any other emotion. This post was edited by Merlin at April 18, 2020 6:44 PM MDT

Clearly. It does remain to be seen, regardless when the powers-that-be finally lift mandated social restrictions, how, when (or if) most people can shake off the anxieties we see amplified in this crisis. Are handshakes a thing of the past now? Hugs? 

  I believe that handshakes and hugs are now on the endangered species list. 
  As for hugs, I might welcome it: I have co-workers who are serial huggers, largely based on their heritage and cultural customs. I, however, am not. I do not like, want, nor enjoy unsolicited hugs from almost anyone, but especially not in the workplace. The people to whom I refer at work give every indication that everyone else must accept this act, and it’s an affront to them, an insult, a social faux pas to avoid it, ignore it, refuse it or decline it. Ever since social distancing has commenced, even the serial huggers are now converts, as they have taken to waving from a safe distance of at least six feet away. I, for one, am loving it.

~

You ARE the most amazing communicator when it comes to writing fact and emotion in an easy-to-read, beautiful, fashion.

Exactly!!!

:) :)!!


This post was edited by Merlin at April 18, 2020 12:00 PM MDT

His hat size just swelled to 8 1/2

  You say it as if it’s a bad thing. 
~

I didn't know those hats came in sizes. This post was edited by Merlin at April 18, 2020 12:37 PM MDT

  You might need to get out more.  Or get more in, whichever the case may be . . . 




~

Ahhhh, the beauty of being a wizardress.  I have never had a need for such manmade barriers. 
Please remember, I speak for nature in mind and body.
I could never imagine such a barrier denying me the euphoria of physical pleasure. This post was edited by Merlin at April 18, 2020 3:59 PM MDT

Another is that we are enjoying cheap fuel prices from decreased demand (and a really poorly timed and foolish oil war). I think this will accelerate the advent of alternative energy sources in our world. 

I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. I filled up the other day at $2.29 a gallon - almost unheard of in NYC.  I've seen it as low as $2.19.  I hope you're right about alternative energy because that is one way we can see employment come back.  Opening new energy avenues is what will take us into the future.  It would be no different than when we went from horses and buggies to motorcars.  All those blacksmiths had to find other employment. 

I hope that one of the pluses out of this pandemic is the realization that we need to stop depending so much on foreign manufacturing for our needs.  It is unconscionable to have to rely on China for ventilators and so many of the ingredients for our medicines.  If so many of our garment factories hadn't  gone overseas, we would have been able to mass produce face masks and gowns in the millions, as we need.  Globalization is all well and good, but this pandemic points up our severe weaknesses when it comes to taking care of our own and the leverage a country like China could have over us.  

A buddy of mine is a market analyst, and believes the major oil producers have so fatally wounded themselves in their overproduction, and created such a glut, that oil prices may never regain profit margins needed to sustain them. I can’t say how accurate this is, but we can see the rising tech for renewables and the demand for it.
As you say, we are certainly paying a dear price for decades of outsourcing, and poor leadership on these matters. How stupidly ironic to demonize China while still needing their products, for lack of our own capabilities. 

I would be surprised to find your friend the market analyst correct in his observation.  Oil will still need to be produced for other than vehicles, but not in the quantity needed now.  

I've never felt comfortable with the level of our dependence on China for so much of what is really important to our well-being.  We certainly don't need all their cheap tchotchkes.  

Yeah, I always consider such market advice with a grain of salt, but I value opinions of people who deal with that stuff more than I do. I divested from fossil fuels years ago. I just couldn’t abide profiting from environmental destruction, tree hugger that I am. 

It would be great to see our country make things again (besides weapons and international discord, that is).

 

I understand your reluctance to invest in certain stocks.  I will not buy stock in marijuana companies.  

Couldn't agree more.  Makes me wonder if others, especially those that can make it happen, are thin king the way you and I are.

$2.09 a gallon and nowhere to go.

Wouldn't ya know it?  It was $2.76 here.  As you said, and now we can't even take advantage of it. :(  I did fill up my generator. :))

  I’m wary that once the oil war ends, the prices of that commodity will RAPIDLY skyrocket, so much so that within a few short weeks of rising, they will first meet and then surpass their pre-war highs. I’m in Southern California, a place that always has some of the highest (and most ridiculously so) fuel prices in the US. The current lowest price I know of nearest to me is $2.43 per gallon, a whole dollar less than a few months ago. I’m betting that when things return to “normal” as far as gas prices are concerned, “normal” will then morph into about $4.00 per gallon in my location. 
~

There is still a massive quantity of crude sitting in storage tanks, and in ships. The longer it takes to ramp up to previous levels of consumption, the longer that petrol sits, the longer it will be cheap. It will be some time after resumption of economic activity to return to “normal“ volumes of air traffic, and who know if cruise lines will ever recoup. 

SoCal has always been a special case, and frankly not always in the best ways, and why I chose to live here in Fla and not out there. What happens there is often a disconnect from the rest of the country and visa versa. I think we can agree the uncertainty is daunting and palpable.