I don’t know if this has been posted here yet, but my wife just showed it to me and I set my deep cynicism aside for a moment and felt hopeful for a minute. It’s called The Great Realisation, and I just feel in love with its optimism.
Voice of little boy: Tell me the one about the virus again, then I’ll go to bed.
Man on screen: But my boy, you’re growing weary, sleepy thoughts about your head
Voice of little boy: Please, that one’s my favorite, I promise just once more.
Man on screen: Okay. Snuggle down my boy, though I know you know full well
The story starts before then, in a world I once would dwell.
It was a world of waste and wonder, of poverty and plenty
Back before we understood why hindsight’s 2020.
You see, the people came up with companies to trade across all lands
But they swelled and got much bigger than we ever could have planned.
We’d always had our wants, but now it got so quick,
You could have anything you dreamed of, in a day, and with a click.
We noticed families had stopped talking; that’s not to say they never spoke
But the meaning must have melted, and the work life balance broke.
And the children’s eyes grew squarer and every toddler had a phone,
The filtered out the imperfections but amidst the noise, the felt alone.
And every day the skies grew thicker, until you couldn’t see the stars,
So we flew in planes to find them, while down below we filled our cars.
We’d drive around all day in circles, we’d forgotten how to run.
We swapped the ground for tarmac, shrunk the parks ‘til there were none.
We filled the sea with plastic because our waste was never capped.
Until each day when you went fishing, you’d pull them out already wrapped.
And while we drank and smoked and gambled, our leaders taught us why
It’s best to not upset the lobbies, more convenient to die.
But then, in 2020, a new virus came our way.
The governments reacted and told us all to hide away.
But while we all were hidden, amidst the fear, and all the while,
The people dusted off their instincts. They remembered how to smile.
They started clapping to say thank you, and calling up their mums.
And while the car keys gathered dust they would look forward to their runs.
And with the skies less full of voyagers, the earth began to breathe
The beaches bore new wildlife that scuttled off into the seas.
Some people started dancing, some were singing, some were baking.
We’d grown so used to bad news, but some good news was in the making.
And so when we found the cure and were allowed to go outside
We all preferred the world we found to the one we’d left behind.
Old habits became extinct and they made way for the new,
And every single act of kindness was now given its due.
Voice of little boy: But why did it take a virus to bring the people back together?
Man on screen: Well, sometimes, you’ve got to get sick, my boy, before you start feeling better.
Now lie down and dream of tomorrow, and all the things that we can do
And, who knows, if you dream hard enough maybe some of them will come true.
We now call it The Great Realisation and yes, since then there have been many.
But that’s the story of how it started it, and why hindsight’s 2020.
Yes, it’s far more optimistic than I’m usually willing to be, but no one really knows when or how we’ll come out of this and, at least for today, I want to believe that this is the path we’d take.
