Reflections on the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Epidemic

Now that five years have passed since the COVID 19 crisis, I can really understand how much trauma we experienced on a global scale. But it wasn't just psychological or biological trauma. It went deeper than that. I understand now that there was also a type of civil and political trauma that was unchained by the epidemic. Our systems were on the verge of collapse, and that microscopic virus became a catalyst for the undoing to come. And sadly, the chapters that were to follow—erosion of human rights, religious orthodoxy, fascism, technological surveillance against our will, tribalism and psychological isolation—all of them cascaded after the start of the pandemic.

The Horrors Beneath Old Photographs

In these old photos of 2020 I see how much  creativity I poured into my novels and  LED Queens. It was a highly creative time for me. But now, five years later, I also can recognize the stark and absolute  terror in these images. I see it in everyone's archival images. Yours too. It's important for me to name this terror for what it is. The act of naming gives me some hope for finding solutions going forward, despite the bleak skies of our present horizon.

The Undoing of a Workaholic

The pandemic changed all of us. It heralded a new age to come, one which at the present moment, is filled with pain, suffering, and human death at scale. In these photos you can see the person who pushed through it all in 2020, often at the expense of their own health. This image incites so many emotions, so many of them painful as knife wounds.

The pandemic taught me to undo my identity as a workaholic. It showed me the perils of willful negligence, the same willful negligence that today fuels the genocide in Gaza, the destruction of human rights and digital privacy, and the blatant racism and colonialism that thrives in our corporations and institutions like a poisonous thread woven into fabric. I do think we can make a difference today but it may be done by refusing to stay quiet, and by actively dismantling the status quo.