Conversations with friends about a better world

I DO not know why, or how close this is to an absolute, quantifiable measure. And perhaps it is because it is a Black Swan event. Perhaps because a health crisis bears clear and direct threat to human lives. Perhaps because Covid-19 is blind and random in its infliction.

But in the months of 2020, some parts of conversations with friends have been around what it means to be fair and good.

This is out of the ordinary to me, not because my friends have found a sudden awakening of moral uprightness. It is that there is now more boldness to talk about it. There is less embarrassment in the display of a moral compass, or to say that certain principles should drive decisions.

To be "good" is, of course, an incredibly loaded term. What does it really mean?

It is hard to quantify the trending rise of goodness as a principle, and of course, displays of senseless behaviour in a pandemic - here's looking at you, anti-mask protesters - takes some shine away from this.

(Also, wishing for a better world like a plead for world peace has been ridiculed as tired, throwaway lines. We avoid such pageantry because we fear how it may make us seem frivolous.)

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But I suppose the deeper contemplation about one's reason for being, how one's mortal coil is bound, has sparked questions about how we use what little power we have as individuals to make the world a better place.

It has, for some in my (limited) social circle, sparked deeper, philosophical questions about what it means for a society to be fair, to value justice as a virtue, to put empathy and kindness as a priority.

I suppose in a city-state so relentless in its rat race, a pandemic forced some among us to take pause to ask what matters, and find the words and the language to spell them out.

All of this is anecdotal to me, so it is hard to measure. We can point to charitable giving which has gone up in certain seasons this year. Fundraising website Giving.sg hit a record S$13.6 million in donations between April 1 and April 19, as donors gave away all, or a part, of their Solidarity Payment.

But charitable giving may be spurred by emotional tugging.

And indeed, the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in April also urged donors to pace out their donations, and transition towards sustainable giving. "Donors who cultivate relationships with specific charities that reflect their own values and aspirations often also find deeper satisfaction and tend to be longer-term, more consistent givers."

My personal view is that charitable giving, done in a consistent, regular way, sets an intention to keep the less-fortunate in our thoughts. To set money and time aside on a regular basis, is a deliberate acceptance that a portion of what we earn monthly or a portion of our time should go towards engendering more equitable treatment in society.

In other words, to do good is not a matter of feel-good, to me. It is to think good.

What is possibly more telling is that more global corporate leaders are openly discussing the impact of a wealth gap created by a pandemic that has had unequal effects across income stratas.

This is systemically important, because it forces a new narrative for post-Covid capitalism. It asks deeper questions about the value of labour versus capital, the safety-nets we should create for small business owners and why that remains consistent with innovation, and the re-pricing of unseen environmental, social, and governance risks to be borne by generations later.

Particularly, this is possibly why we see that despite a crisis, the support for a transition to a more sustainable future has surged, rather than being dialled down as some have naturally assumed it would.

There is something to be said about how we look at, for example, rich families around the world that have openly profited from oil and other "old economy" assets, and the current generation of such families who is now open about saying this resource plundering is no longer sustainable for the planet.

Despite the obvious scepticism, we keep looking.

That we are open to confront such realistic ironies and contradictions (or some would say, hypocrisies) is honest, and helps us to start untangling the moral responsibility of businesses and other tightly-held power structures.

A rebalancing act is due, and the repricing must be done by first asking who has truly been left behind.

Someone said that the bigger impact of political responsibility should come into the picture to stir change. Indeed it should. But also, perhaps, it doesn't have to start so large. Or perhaps, the groundswell matters more in redefining the values of any society of tomorrow. People first, then politicians.

This year too, I've heard severe cases of toxic workplace behaviour, but also, more boldness from individuals to reject it, confront it, change it. A pandemic is as good as any to refocus attention on personal dignity. If not now, then when? These are the good fights to be had.

This is the Black Swan of our times. When we look back, how would we want this moment to be judged? How have we adapted in the face of sweeping unknowns? And more importantly, how long will this feel-good shift to doing good last?

These are the conversations with my friends in 2020. Pandemic or not, I've always been ready to be both cheered and disappointed by humanity in the days, months, years ahead.

Though, I suppose, we should always hope.