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.