What is your Understanding of the New Normal? Abundance Tribe QOTW

The new normal seems to have involved a fundamental shift in power towards to government and police and away from ordinary citizens, with the ‘risk’ of spreading Covid-19 being used as the means to impose control measures on individuals.

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Not that the front-line police need to do that much in order to control people, because the vast majority seem to be voluntarily obeying social distancing rules, with the media constructing the police as heroes, along with any other public sector worker.

Coffee shops opened on Monday (yesterday), but people haven’t exactly been flocking to them. I weakened and dropped into Costa yesterday around 10.00 a.m, the Barista told me I was the 13th person to go in since they opened at 8.00 a.m.

The fact that they were able to count is quite telling.

The same thing happened with pubs last weekend, some of which opened for the first time. People did not turn out in the numbers expected, with emergency services reporting a surprisingly ordinary level of business.

So it seems that voluntary social-distancing, at least in our public spaces which are emptier than ever, is very much part of the new normal.

I guess this means there’s been a corresponding retreat into family and private spaces, but we’ve always been quite privatised anyway – it’s not as if high streets and shopping centres are really genuinely social – there’s not exactly a lot of meaningful interaction that goes on between groups of private individuals – so I’m not sure if social-emptiness for the most part is that different?

Where things will be different, just plane weirder is where there is a degree of meaningful interaction outside of our immediate family and friendship circles – and for most of us that primarily means at work and school, and I’m so glad I don’t really work for a living any more, especially glad I got out of teaching now that teachers are going to have to act as social-distancing police, which is just going to be impossible.

The coming economic downturn – the wrong kind of emptiness?

I saw a rather depressing Facebook message from my favourite local pub:

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This implies they may have folded – that pub is the best local pub in Kent, hands down, but margins were already tight, I can’t see how it along with any other number of local businesses are going to weather the Covid-crises.

We’ll probably see less diversity going forwards.

The Vaccine and the reinforcement of techno-medicine as central to 'safety'

I guess another aspect of the new normal is going to be the coming-vaccine – which will no doubt be heralded as a wonderful thing, a saviour.

The Sun newspaper has already been publishing articles about the British population being first in line.

Along with this comes the construction of bio scientists as ‘heroes’ – as experts commanding knowledge we can’t live without, and the reinforcement that we need hi-tech biotech systems rather than local small-scale knowledge systems.

How is Covid going to affect your life?

Well I’ve already lost £6K in income, but at least that’s only one year.

Besides this, I think life just feels a bit weirder outside. Although most people seem to be just taking things in their stride, there’s enough of a sense of fear to make the outside world just that little bit more unpleasant, and I’ve never found it that pleasant in ‘normal times’.

So I’ve stayed in a lot recently, only going out very early indeed.

I can’t imagine re-entering the world of proper work now.

What measures if any are you going to put in place to help you maintain the life that you want?

I was planning on emigrating to Portugal and living in a Yurt on some land anyway, so I’m just going to stick to this plan, assuming that central rural Portugal is basically utopia and sane.

I'll just be a bit poorer and more uncertain about whether I’ll be able to get in come October when I head out!

This was my response to @abundance.tribe's QOTW.

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Coffee shops opened on Monday (yesterday), but people haven’t exactly been flocking to them.

Costa seem a little slow, Starbucks etc.. opened weeks ago and were faced with massive queues. I waited for 45 minutes at one until I told the family NO.. not happening ever again.

There was money to be made, demand from desperate people who have not tasted coffee in 3 months, some made lots and Costa missed out, dumbasses!

It did seem odd that they weren't open for so long.

I've generally been avoiding going out after 8.00 a.m. to avoid said Qs, and just the general all round oddness!

The queue's have all but gone except for 'what's new'.. and that is pubs and barbers.

Pubs I can live without - barbers, don't people book in advance for those anyway?

Not all of them, I go to a walk-in one or did.

East Midlands and Bergamo Milan have been quite pleasant.

And just because I know you love the aeroplane selfies...

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Ah lovely, that guy to your left seems to be copying your face mask style.

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately - what is the new normal for me. In June life seemed to be pretty much the same as before the Corona virus but now it's starting to get "messy" again. This time it has been a lot harder for me than the 3+ months of self isolation when everything started so I'm trying to create a new "normal" for me personally.

I really hope your plans will go as smooth as possible, autumn/winter in Portugal doesn't sound bad at all! :)

To be honest I quite enjoyed the isolation, I think a lot of people did!

Adjusting to it getting busier and weirder at the same time is a tough one for sure.

In my head Portugal's going to be great!

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