The new normal

Abstract

Everybody who is anybody is saying that, as a result of the pandemic, we now have to accept this ‘new’ normal we are living. Some present it as a good thing, while others see it as a sort of compromise that we need to either accept happily or rebel against. Making a sudden, unannounced arrival and creating havoc in its wake, the new normal has become the new kid on the block and, from what we keep hearing, seems to be here to stay. Reluctance to accept it is, somehow, even if subtly, labelled as resistance to change. But what is it that we are being asked to accept? And what, of the ‘old’ normal, should we be happy to discard? What kind of community, if any, is this new normal going to create?