I went back and talked to the elephant.
The elephant in the room.
The elephant I hadn’t noticed until, one morning, he was there.
The elephant that says he’s the economy.
Me: Hello again, how are you?
The Elephant: Not great, how are you?
Me: Not bad. Why are you not great?
The Elephant: Ah. Y’know.
Me: I don’t know. Tell me.
The Elephant: I’m just fed up with people not going out.
Me: Well, we’re all fed up with not going out.
The Elephant: But you need to fix it.
Me: We will. We’re trying. When we have a vaccine, all of this will be over.
The Elephant: So, where’s the vaccine?
Me: It’s coming.
The Elephant: Where is it?
Me: Well, there’s lots of trials and work on it.
The Elephant: But where is it?
Me: Well, Glaxo Smith Kline or someone will have it.
The Elephant: Oh, so it’ll be the big pharma companies that create the vaccine?
Me: I think so.
The Elephant: Better invest in them then.
Me: Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.
The Elephant: But what then? What comes after the vaccine?
Me: I’ve no idea.
The Elephant: Think about it.
Me: I guess we go back to normal?
The Elephant: No. There is no normal anymore.
Me: But you cannot say that. We will get our groove back. We won’t lose our MoJo.
The Elephant: MoJo is like MoHo. You don’t have a MoJo.
Me: We have a MoJo. I just think it’ll be different.
The Elephant: I have an idea..
Me: What?
The Elephant: I have an idea of your new normal. Your new MoJo.
Me: OK. How does that look?
The Elephant: Well, it’s a new world where you all deal globally locally.
Me: That’s not the old normal.
The Elephant: I know, it’s different.
Me: Well, I guess that means most companies and people will still work from home over the internet, but connect with people everywhere.
The Elephant: Exactly. And you don’t need to go out. Your MoJo becomes GloLo.
Me: Wha’ts GloLo?
The Elephant: Global Local. Isn’t that obvs?
Me: It is now you’ve said it, but how does GloLo work?
The Elephant: It is based upon everyone is local, but connected globally.
Me: I get that, but how does it work?
The Elephant: Well, think about it.
Me: I’m thinking.
The Elephant: It works like now. It works like now lasts forever. It works like everyone is at home. They don’t do global. They don’t travel. They stay at home.
Me: Duh?
The Elephant: That’s GloLo. GloLo is where everyone is global but local. Everyone is connected globally via the internet, but they stay at home. They work from home, deal from home, trade from home, order from home, get deliveries to the home … and it’s all globally connected through the network.
Me: Jeez.
The Elephant: That is the new world and it’s not the new normal. It’s a new thing.
Me: I’m not sure I like it.
The Elephant: Tough.
Me: Do you not think that humans relying on the network so much for everything in their lives is an issue?
The Elephant: I don’t care. I’m not a human.
Me: Sorry, I forgot. You’re an elephant.
The Elephant: Correct.
Me: But, as an elephant, you never forget do you?
The Elephant: Correct. I remember everything.
Me: So, can you remember a time when we were better than this?
The Elephant: In what way?
Me: Can you remember a time when humans were better than this?
The Elephant: I don’t get the question.
Me: Can you remember a time when humans had a better life than now?
The Elephant: Oh no, you’ve never had it so good.
Me: Wow.
The Elephant: You’ve screwed the planet, messed up the climate, ruined my life and my family, but you’ve never had it so good.
Me: What?
The Elephant: You’ve messed everything up, and the only good news in this crisis is that you’re finally dealing with the mess you’ve made.
Me: What?
The Elephant: You’re finally not travelling, not flying, not driving, not going out. That’s not great for the economy of old but we are building a new economy. I’m just glad to see that you’re not travelling, not flying, not driving, not going out.
Me: What?
The Elephant: Well, the fact that you’re not travelling, not flying, not driving, not going out, is good for the planet, good for the climate, good for the community and good for the animals.
Me: Damn.
The Elephant: Damn good.
Me: Yes. Damn good.
The Elephant: Damn good.
I’m not sure if I like this elephant.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
