Firstly, Let me say that actually “New Normal” is merely back to Normal. It means that Our Yesterday’s life was just abnormal.
Secondly, I would like to explain what hyperreality is?
For instance, one day, you buy a glass of coffee at your favourite coffee shop for 40 thousand Rupiahs; why is a sip of coffee on earth so expensive?
Supposedly, the coffee’s introductory price is at 7 thousand Rupiahs, which means that you have to spend the remaining 33 thousand Rupiahs on the cost of the rental sofa of the outlet and the coffee shop’s symbol. Your 33 thousand rupiahs are called hyperreality, a condition or a mental state that make us think that how we spent our 33 thousand was something real and our need was beyond our own basic needs.
(FYI, Hyperreality is a term introduced by the French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard in his book Simulacra, 1981)
We would never see the word hyperreality such a tremendous if we had not found this word on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media.
Abruptly, the Covid-19 emerged. Suddenly, we are afraid to go out of the house, are so scared to gather in a crowd, and our outdoor activities become limited. Workers worldwide found that their income significantly disappeared almost overnight due to the coronavirus pandemic, and most of our time is spent at home now. Everything is doing from home now. So then, how is the luck hyperrealistic now? (Hyperealista, this is how I called the hyperrealist).
The coffee shops are deserted and almost empty, malls are quiet, and co-working spaces are abandoned. Nobody uploaded their photograph images on self-image enhancing outlets. Are these luxuries, prestige and status still relevant now? Do we, possibly, need that? Or if we get to the top of the question: do we still need such things these days?
Covid-19 pandemic is just like a reset button on your PC. When the button is pressed, all of the things will immediately reset to the starting point. We have experienced Large-scale social restrictions (PSBB Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar), were at that time, we were directed to do everything we needed. This is terrible news for businesses such as tourism, hotels, malls, cafes and all businesses that depend on BRAND- IMAGE, LUXURY or PRESTIGE.
The ‘social restrictions’ are a devil for these businesses. So, What is wrong anyway?
Is it true that social life is restricted?
There is nothing wrong with it. What happens to us is not social restrictions but social life returning to a reasonable point when, at the same time, our social life has been wholly overdosed (Rp40,000 for a single glass of coffee???)
The err is with the luxurious coffee shops and colleagues who developed businesses based on the imaginary matter (luxury brand-image, prestige, status). If you think that famous coffee stall only sells their finest beverages or signature meals, they don’t; their businesses buy and sell symbols. Symbols that will change the status when human social life is pushed to the limit beyond the natural needs of humans beings. When the inhabitant space to meet each other is destroyed like Today, that’s when the symbols collapse in their selling points.
Is this a lousy symptom? Yup! This is an alarming symptom that indicates how innocently we’ve been working regularly 8 hours a day, five days a week, to fulfil our imaginary needs (hyperreality). We were kept entirely away from what we need in reality. But, we sincerely spent a large amount of money just for the illusions.
New Normal is decayed of the abnormality and is the returning of the everyday life. Before the industrial revolution, human life was relatively very normal. Humans are equal in terms of works for their needs. At coffee time, they got coffee and enjoyed it to get rid of fatigue. In their opinion, coffee shops are just a public space for mutual interaction, rather than a place for doing hallucinations or for solitariness. After having coffee, they simply back to everyday life (instead of doing vertical mobility). What they earn, wages, used only for fulfilling their basic needs. Not to ‘buy’ a business brand image.
If we still live like the above conditions and are hit by an extraordinary incident such as a pandemic, perhaps there will be no dramatic response as what is happening nowadays. Millions of workers depend on imaginary businesses such as malls, coffee stalls, etc. You can imagine the domino effect of the destruction … collapsing one vanished a lot. Millions of workers are threatened with their lives due to the loss of their jobs. They are alienated from their job, so they feel like nobody and powerless when they lose their profession.
The time has come for the world of imaginary businesses to overhaul its business plan to a real (genuine) company and doing something adaptive if you want to survive Today. Maintaining the same business as yesterday as if we were still alive in the old day’s era will make you failed to move on.
New Normal is a psychological therapy and a shock therapy for us to rethink and introspect on how fragile our social life was yesterday. But then, it was just like a giant spider’s web. Our social life seems very well organized, systemized and neatly massive structured, but we do not realize it is fragile and unstable even when a small stone falls on it.
This new Normal encourages us to be focused and make our energy and thoughts efficient for the things we need only. The new normal is a clue for us that our hallucinatory needs have already perished. It seems to me that our lives have already been sufficiently fulfilled. We are encouraged to rethink what we need. It makes us finding back our solid identity and natural function. It’s all done. We’re shifting.
Change, or we die. Get real.
Our yesterday’s world has already gone out. Today’s earth is just like a giant hospital. And we are lying on it and keep thinking about how to stay healthy and stay alive. Have you ever seen someone take a selfie while lying dying in a hospital? So, that is the death of hyperreality. If Baudrillard, in the 80s, had already thought about the hyper-reality condition, then in his time, he had already understood the danger and was igniting the SOS symbol to us so that we are immediately alerted saved ourselves we were standing on a time bomb.
New Normal? Welcome Normal life and keep sane, keep alive!
Translated by Alfian Siagian.