Description
I am rather pessimistic and have little trust in the possibility of changing our economic system, which imposed its principles also on our private lives. When the pandemic has begun many people around me started to see in it a chance for humans to wake up from a consumer lethargy, and for the system to change. I saw it from the beginning rather black and had dark thoughts. They confirmed partly by some of my friends, who had complained about the inability to go to the store like Ikea and buy something new for home. On the other hand, also because of what is happening in Spain, the people are obliged to buy in the nearest supermarket, which means they are unable to support for example food cooperatives or small ecological stores, which are located in another district. So practically the entire food market is focused on large supermarkets, which once again shows that the crisis will lead us to strengthen those units, those institutions, that were already strong and had capital, but destroy these small institutions, small businesses, small farmers.
As always, simply those who are big will come out of the crisis unscathed, while the fall will affect the smallest and most vulnerable. I hear however that more and more people start to grow their own food, that the market anxiety and the uncertainty whether in a month or two months it will be possible to buy lettuce or cucumbers in the store, makes people reach for seeds, reach for their own gardens and start their own cultivation, what is positive. Also, some countries are already closing exports of their own food products, e.g. Romania and Serbia, trying to protect their own market. And in Poland it is going to be difficult anyway, as the drought, which is said to be the largest in past hundred years, is ahead of us - we see its consequences already, it will be very difficult to grow food.
The crisis is to me a sad possibility to violate human rights as well. When the main media keeps dealing with pandemic, the weakest and their needs are being forgotten, it is not being told how their rights are violated. Whether the crisis will be a chance for a change or not depends on how the society behaves, what I unfortunately see pessimistic.
I feel that after the crisis, when we will be finally able to leave our houses freely, some fights will start: fights for jobs, private fights, between private individuals, rather individualistic than collectivist thinking (will dominate), while collectivism could lead us to a change in the system and taking power in societies own hands. And I think that this crisis will cause more gathering of power and capital in large institutions. "