Surviving the Future
What will tomorrow bring in the age of COVID-19? There is so much uncertainty. Arundhati Roy sees an opportunity. She writes, “Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
Speakers
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a senior correspondent at The Intercept and Professor of Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. She was the inaugural Gloria Steinem endowed chair of media, culture and feminist studies at Rutgers University until September 2021. She is an award-winning journalist and author of many books including: How to Change Everything, On Fire: The Burning Case for A Green New Deal, No Is Not Enough, This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, and No Logo. In addition to The Intercept her articles appear in The Guardian, Rolling Stone and The Nation.
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is a world-renowned award-winning writer and global justice activist. Tariq Ali says of her she “is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi.” Among her many books are My Seditious Heart and Azadi.
Susan Bell –
The truth…. thank you.
Brad Murphy –
Very insightful and inspiring.