Sustainability, inequality, alienation
Metamodernism’s three big challenges; sustainability, inequality and alienation, become even more essential during a global pandemic.
Sustainability
Disruption to the global supply chains that manufacture and ship products around the world and many retailers going into administration or requesting government bailouts show that the pre-pandemic capitalist model is not sustainable. If globalization was capitalism’s spatial fix then digitization is going to be capitalism’s metamodernist approach to tackling sustainability challenges in the digital age.
Inequality
Social and economic inequalities become amplified during a pandemic with the underemployed and those on low wages suffering worst. Metamodernism’s reconstruction of opposites previously in competition offers an opportunity to challenge the inequality in society by joining the opposing elements in a new configurations.
Alienation
Social distancing and self-isolation are the only viable behaviours during a pandemic. In a metamodern world where people are connected through the internet and distanced by location, and the effects compounded by breaking social bonds and confused self-identity, the deepest collaboration allows us to consciously join our efforts and perspectives with those of others, and tackle the challenge of alienation.
There is no certainty, but instead all possibilities present themselves and acting as if things will get better, even if we don’t necessarily think they will, is the best choice any individual can make. “We need to do something, we need to find a way in order to get ahead, to get better, to do something” -Vermeulen