As a teacher and now a mother, I often ask myself about what the future holds.
Looking at two years of pandemic (that is still going on), and observing its impact on our society, one can wonder what is in the future in many ways.
The first observation that is stricking is how commitment is now mostly perceived as quaint and no longer for the purpose of the greater good. The pandemic has created a situation in which people could not detach from their work spheres anymore, since it got within their personal lives. Consequently, people now seek freedom from what they’ve experienced – which means little to no ties – from their workplaces. The impact one can observe is now that most people do not look for long term relationships with their workplaces anymore, in order to satisfy their need for emotional comfort.
In a way, it would result in more short term contracts and less money.
One of the drawbacks of such a trend is the fact that companies may lose quality work over quickly used and less refined competences.
Similarly, human relationships nowadays seem to lean on the same principle : the fear of stability, long term, compromise, hard work…
Then, as one relative of mine said with a lot of wit : there is no more job – in France – that is respected any longer. The jobs that enable societies to function, do not receive the credit they should – the medical field, the police, the teachers mostly.
With the growing fad of “influencing” on social media, we may wonder how to tell our children that studies are worth struggling for, in order to be successful, when young people that sometimes don’t even have a degree, nor any working experience, manage to make it to the top.
Finally, with the issues raised about climate change and the rise in temperature all over the world, one may question what the future of humanity will become, when even with all the campaigning done, efforts among civilians, adjustments made by some politics need even more reinforcement from everyone on the globe.
With the return to normal life, the sky is crowded with planes, more than ever. Climate and natural catastrophes multiply all over the world. Mass production keeps up fueling the sky with carbon…
People think about colonising outter space, but it is not better than what is done right now.
Fixing, and educating… We need to improve our lifestyles and keep up being demanding towards everyone in order to change the situation, even if the future does not look bright. We must avoid producing carbon, thinking of our daily impact and thinking of the others. We must work on our relationships to preserve the link between people and value respect in every way. We need to ensure long term commitments and stop trashing everything and everyone.
Life is beautiful, and we can make things beautiful because we have one power that any other species does not have :will!
Written by Adélaïde Uppal
OxForest Web Magazine 