Let’s not try to solve the crisis just yet. 

In the last week, a number of provinces have announced phased reopening plans after COVID-19 shutdowns and some, like New Brunswick, are already transitioning to reopening. In Europe, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy have announced when and how they intend to loosen restrictions. In China, Beijing’s parks and museums, including the ancient Forbidden City, reopened to the public last Friday after being closed for months.

In Canada, conversations are emerging and projects are launching to already start advocating for recovery solutions — from universal basic income to domestic agricultural production. 

It’s very tempting to start with the solutions. But the thing is, we’re on the cusp of a sweeping revolution — one that will change every facet of our lives. The changes ahead will challenge and alter fundamental concepts such as education, work, family supports, privacy, human rights, long-term care, money, and markets. With the world at the threshold of profound change, it would be foolish of us to jump to solutions right away. 

So, how do we begin to address the massive shifts underway in nearly every facet of our lives? How do we build back better? Asking courageous questions is where to begin. 

The changes ahead will challenge and alter fundamental concepts such as education, work, family supports, privacy, human rights, long-term care, money, and markets.

As more music festivals announced cancellations this past week, I reflected on music that has moved me — by artists like David Bowie, B.B. King, and Prince. I listened to some of my favourite albums on vinyl as I thought about what questions these artists would ask if they were around today. Bowie famously challenged an MTV reporter back in 1982 on their reluctance to play black musicians on the channel: “Is it not possible it should be a conviction of the station to be fair… to make media more integrated?” Artists such as Bowie had an incredible creative gift, which manifested in singing, songwriting, and performing. I believe they also shook up the world by asking the right questions — provocative, thoughtful, and courageous questions. The world was better for it. I realize now that as much as their personalities and their craft have moved me, it was their ability to ask better questions through their work that I found and continue to find inspiring and compelling. 

We are so harried and so busy responding to demands of the pandemic, who has the time or patience for it?

The American poet E.E. Cummings once wrote, Always the beautiful answer / who asks a more beautiful question. On some level, we must know — as the artist, the activist, and the school teacher knows — that questions are important and that we should be paying more attention to them — especially now. 

The social impact world has a kind of love/hate relationship with questioning. Let’s admit it. We are so eager to act, to do, that we often feel we don’t have time to question just what it is we’re doing. And those not in leadership roles or not in roles that control capital often perceive questioning established ways of doing things as hazardous to one’s career. The risk is that it can be seen as uninformed, or possibly insubordinate, or maybe both. However, the ability to seek better solutions has also enabled impact-oriented people everywhere to identify new opportunities, non-obvious perspectives, and fresh possibilities for tackling homelessness, protecting languages, advancing workers rights, strengthening mental health supports, and so much more. 

Solutions to this crisis won’t be found in the form of off-the-shelf advice, tips, or strategies from experts. We’ll soon find that these solutions don’t quite fit in the new reality. We don’t just want to let our immediate past around physical distancing shape our questions — as an example, by going contactless everywhere. Or just let experts in specific areas come up with the questions. This can lead people who feel the future is drones to ask questions that end in answers that require drones, for example. 

Solutions to this crisis won’t be found in the form of off-the-shelf advice, tips, or strategies from experts.

There have been few watersheds quite like this pandemic, and none that have hit this globalized world with such suddenness or caught the planet so ill-prepared for the consequences of the changes being unleashed. The questions we must contend with are ones like: How do we maintain the environmental gains we’re seeing right now? What is essential pay for essential work? What is our new hierarchy of needs? How can recovery efforts create new ways to ensure opportunity and equity?

A couple of years ago, my then three and a half-year-old daughter brought me the action figure she was playing with. It’s head had popped off during play. She brought it to me and said, “make it better.” She didn’t say “fix it,” she asked me to make it better. This stunned me. So we didn’t just pop the head back on and return it to its original state, but actually talked about what would make it so it wouldn’t pop it off again. I’ll never forget this conversation. 

We’re all hungry for better solutions. But first we must create space for the right questions. 

Vinod Rajasekaran

Publisher & CEO

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