2020 is over. What’s next ?
2020 was a year of introspection, a year when time stood still. One consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rise of essentialism, a new shift in the scale of values: today, one thing is certain – one can no longer be rich in the same way as before.
The flaunting of luxury has become less acceptable and the clash between the accumulation of wealth by the few and the sense of social disenfranchisement by the many has become much more violent. From an ethical point of view, there will be even less place for ostentation in 2021.
We aspire to live and feel our relationship with the world differently, acquiring fewer things but of higher quality.
Our mantra is not the ‘Less is more’ of the 1960s but ‘Less is better’, the word better implying more ethical, more moral, more conscientious. It is the end of the purely ornamental, we are entering the era of pre-rationalism where what matters is humility and individual responsibility, not just in the act of consuming but in the act of creating too.
In 2021, it is vital we create with a conscience, because ideas are the only wealth we need to build the world of tomorrow.
May this New Year be full of new creative and constructive ideas to make this world better. Let’s create with a conscience. In 2021, we all need it. In 2021, we all deserve it.
(Guillaume Jourdan wrote this post. You can reach him via LinkedIn)
