I am moving away from my usual subject of history writing for this article as I feel we are all living through a moment of significant history today, and one has to concentrate on the now, as well as the past, for guidance, writes Glenn Maffia.
Italy’s tourism secretary Lorenza Bonaccors, recently stated, “This might be the time to move away from mass tourism, towards one more respectful of the environment” (May 2020).
To my mind it appears that Didim couldn’t be further from these virtuous sentiments, for its rather tawdry brashness is the antithesis of Lorenza’s sophisticated and cool logic.
Gullible minds
From the angle I am witnessing, most people’s perception of their time away from the workplace appears to be consumed by the urgent requirement to demand ‘entertainment’, and perilously shallow entertainment at that.
It appears many are retaining those perceptions ingrained from our youth of the ‘well-defined’ parameters of what constitutes a ‘holiday’. One is allowed to grow-up, you know, to stretch one’s horizons a little further within an adult manner befitting one’s years.
I rarely venture to the seafront, and certainly never of an evening, for, to me, the area holds no appeal. As I am told, pre-pandemic, it remained a frenzy of gratuitous noise, screeching lights and laughter, and it seems endemic to all nationalities. I can only fear that globalization has reduced so many gullible minds into believing the force-fed mush of neo-liberal commercialism.
I suppose that a majority have always been conditioned to blindly follow (‘sheeple’, as my friend refers to them) otherwise there would be no consensus, and then the control would be unattainable.
That rather dystopian scenario importantly hinges on what is perceived to be ‘normal’. That, primarily in Britain, is basically a Utilitarian philosophy, “The greatest good, for the greatest number”, very popular in the Victorian era and throughout its ugly Empire. Sentiments that were beneficially welcomed during the 19th century, though somehow craftily manipulated to deflect attention from political issues during the intervening decades up to this very moment, it is about moving the populace’s focus.
Reduction of the bonhomie brigade
Though, on a more positive note, this coronavirus pandemic now sweeping the planet could be the catalyst for a new perspective. Thus clearing and cleaning the prevalent ‘certainties’ of yesteryear.
Once we, hopefully, endure and survive this wave of what could be an ever-present pandemic, we are told that we shall have to acclimatise to a ‘New Normal’.
This, I believe, is precisely the point Lorenza Bonaccors is identifying. This ‘New Normal’ shall establish modes of behaviour that will become indelibly ingrained, if for nothing more than our own survival. I would not trust crowds again, even if a vaccine is distributed worldwide.
This mass of heaving sweaty bodies shall no longer be conducive to public or personal safety.
Social distancing is already the byword for safety, it shall be so at least until the vaccine arrives (which is not predicted until another 12-18 months, possibly even two years, possibly never). Therefore a ‘New Normal’ shall undoubtedly usher in much stricter regulations.
I believe that we shall miss the crowded teahouses where the elderly men congregate for backgammon and heated discussion, while the foreign contingent may have to curtail their quiz and karaoke nights and all the other mass gatherings they flock to. Really, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and all those innumerable Birthday Parties, and all attended by an age group which is definitely in the vulnerable risk bracket.
The owners of ‘leisure’ establishments, also, need to adapt to this ‘New Normal’. I predict that this new behavioural pattern shall reduce the ‘bonhomie’ brigade and accompany in a more sedate and thoughtful clientele.
All these juvenile hedonistic events shall not be missed by me in the slightest as I have always found them utterly vacuous. I shall merely return to the Temple of Apollo, and so shall my writing.
Didim shall have to change tack dramatically, and, personally, I can never imagine those bellicose days of zealous revelry ever truly returning. Nothing has changed, the virus is not going anywhere just yet.
Stay home. Stay safe.