The mantra is both constant and widespread despite its obvious ridiculousness. 

Very soon all will be well, we can once again return to ‘normal life’ thanks to the vision and skill of our gifted leaders.  Even as things fall apart before our very eyes, the chant remains the same.

In Malta as elsewhere, it is events and moments like these that should encourage us to take stock and reflect on whether the mad scramble for ‘business as usual’ is worth the price we are paying.

Locally and internationally, we are witnessing the consequences of the insane idea that there can be unlimited economic development on an island and more broadly on a planet with finite natural resources and capacity.   

Living as we do on a very small set of islands, we are particularly well set to assess the major challenges and crisis the world faces. Issues such as environmental destruction, climate change, a reckless demand for even more fossil fuels, increasing consumption of meat alongside a culture of unnecessary waste are obvious to all and need little argument. 

Behind it all, however, lies our fundamentally avaricious lifestyle where enough is never enough.  Even amid a global pandemic we ignore our ‘underlying condition’ as we breathlessly wait for the green light to go ‘at it’ again.

All our talk of reconnecting with nature, slowing the pace of life, taking care of the vulnerable, protecting our health workers, valuing what’s important and cherishing life amounts to little more than utter twaddle.  A cursory review of the utterances of so many political and economic (mis)leaders reveals what the priorities really are. 

Underlying this dominant national and international machismo lies a deep and almost routine cruelty, exemplified for example by the official announcements of COVID-19 deaths and the refusal to appropriately acknowledge or share the pain of the families and communities affected.  

The cruelty is also evident in the aggressive vaccine nationalism now rampant as well as the banal use of international comparisons to justify or excuse inaction or mismanagement.

Overall, we are witnessing a deep failure of politics in which language, meaning and truth are mangled. We have become used to, even immune to, absolute torrents of lies alongside vapid analyses, incompetence and widespread stupidity routinely dressed up in PR spin. 

Fundamentally our insistence that we get back to ‘normality’ as fast as possible reveals an underlying illness for which there is no vaccine. We are experiencing a deadening vacuum of official leadership and ideas. 

We continue to be offered lazy, tired and broken binaries - this model of growth and ‘development’ or nothing as if there is no other option. This government or chaos, this model of ‘success’ or failure.

And worst of all, we are prone to accepting this utter nonsense. We are in danger of accepting that there is no alternative while in reality there are many, many alternatives.

Meanwhile, we witness a massive transfer of wealth upwards (it almost never ‘trickles down’ as we are told by our ‘betters’) to the wealthiest and how that wealth is used to undermine society. Locally and internationally, our societies are being drenched in corruption and criminality.

In these circumstances, frustration and anger are necessary emotions but they need to be creatively and positively harnessed. We must take care not to simply respond in-kind to the dominant agenda; instead, we need to harness and apply alternative stories, visions and ideas. 

We urgently need to build a new, vigorous and ethical-political literacy to replace the corrupt shallowness that now masquerades as ‘leadership’.

There are many examples of what can and should be done and there is more than enough evidence of the skill, energy and heart needed in society at large. 

Our necessary first step in building this vital new political literacy is to call out and reject the dominant economic and political model for what it is – a race to the bottom.