There are inflection points, moments in the arc of history when things happen and nothing is ever the same again. These moments are fundamental shifts in the way things are, what we call “the new normal.”

Think back to the way life was on Sept. 10, 2001. Our view of security and surveillance on that Monday was such that our nation would have barely tolerated what has become the standard operating procedures at our airports, stadiums, and other public and private venues. We certainly would not have tolerated the post-9/11 type of data gathering on our most routine communications being conducted by the National Security Agency.

It is true that some of what we now accept as normal is purely a product of technology advances since 2001, but I’m talking about our entire concept of privacy and what constitutes proper boundaries. All of that changed in a single 24-hour period on a late summer afternoon nearly two decades ago. We gave up a lot in the name of security and the need to feel safe — think about the provisions of the USA Patriot Act — and there is no way to put that toothpaste back in the tube.

My point is that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inflection point, a crisis that shocked us, distracted us, scared us and set the stage for a fundamental shift in the way we lived our lives. Right after 9/11, we didn’t ask all of the questions we should have, nor did we demand the privacy safeguards that we could have put on security measures, if we’d had more time to think while we were trying desperately to get back to normal.

Fast forward to the financial crisis of 2008-2009, what history now calls the “Great Recession.” It wasn’t a single-day shocking event, as 9/11 was, but a few grim weeks when experts were talking about the economy going over a cliff and a complete meltdown of the global financial system.

In a December 2017 article in the Atlantic, “The Great Recession Is Still With Us,” journalist Ann Lowrey examined how the economic downturn, nearly a decade later, “left scars in terms of housing and wealth — with the rich getting richer and the poor recovering far less, if at all.”

According to Lowrey’s interviews with experts, what came out of the financial crisis for many people was less access to credit, more struggle to buy a house, greater difficulty financing an education, families with no cash cushion for emergencies, and higher foreclosure and bankruptcy rates than before the meltdown. I’m not an economist or historian, but the Great Recession seems to have added some breath-taking inequality.

What have we lost or given away as a result of the seismic shift that took place in 2008 and 2009? My guess is that the death of the American Dream and a middle class that has been placed on life support would top this list. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the opioid epidemic seized this country on the heels of the Great Recession. Nor I do think it is a coincidence that some of the most notable increases in mortality in recent years have been among middle aged white men ages 45 to 54, according to research from Angus Deaton and Anne Case of Princeton University.

What we will we lose or give away in the name of COVID-19? It is certainly too soon to tell, but it is worth thinking about, because things will never quite be the same again. Will we have some new type of medical surveillance? Will people in quarantine have to submit to some new type of tracking? What will become of the debate over vaccines?

This crisis will impact many areas beyond direct health care policy. There’s the push to mandate “cashless” transactions for everyday expenses, the probability that remote workplaces are here to stay, changes in the handling of our food supply, and just about every corner of the economy.

It really comes down to what monumental changes will be instituted in the name of preparing for the next global pandemic, and to what degree these changes will be acceptable to us. It’s hard to say. If nothing else, we know we’re in unchartered territory when not only first responders and medical personnel, but also grocery store clerks, are the heroes of this crisis.

Albert B. Kelly is mayor of Bridgeton. Contact him by phone at 856-455-3230 Ext. 200.

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