Nothing changes by itself

A graphic representation of a hysteresis loop. In economic theory, hysteresis refers to a state that is dependent from its history, well after the forces that have led to its inception cease. It represents the resistance of a system to external shocks, because the system itself puts in place safeguards to its own perpetration. Hysteresis is what we should fight if we want a more just and sustainable world after the COVID scare.

We often hear, these days, that the COVID crisis is at the same time an alarm bell and an opportunity. A warning, because our social and economic systems that appeared to many as stable, robust, and resilient are being torn to pieces by a virus whose mortality is a (low) number of times higher than the flu. An opportunity, because it could end up in a solid consensus for a reset to more just and equitable social and economic systems.