There are lessons in hardship. But will we remember them?

Prior to the coming of the coronavirus, we Australians had not experienced a recession in 29 years. And even the recession we did have last year was self-inflicted: we chose to shut down the economy because of the virus. Things have since picked up to the extent that the unemployment rate today is lower than it was just over a year ago. Not a bad effort, all things considered.

There are two ways of looking at how this experience might shape our future. On one hand it could be argued that Australians will look for security going forward. This could manifest in a return to traditional religion, or spiritual beliefs; in desperate times throughout history, humanity has looked for, prayed for, deliverance. At the peak of the pandemic, in the deep recesses of some atheists’ minds, I do wonder if there wasn’t a yearning – a market, so to speak – for divine intervention. In one sense belief is a bit like insurance. It’s the premium paid to ensure salvation.

Or maybe we will look for security in other ways. Perhaps we’ll be inclined to take out more insurance policies to protect our worldly assets. Perhaps we’ll take an interest in home security systems. Or maybe there’ll be a surge in demand for pets so that we can do the protecting and the caring.

We have been shaken by the pandemic and now we want existential threats better managed (including climate change) at both the national and household levels. It kinda makes sense, I suppose.

Indeed, let’s say that later in the 2020s there’s a conflict in our region involving Australia. If so, we will have been hardened by the self-sacrifice triggered by the pandemic, by compliance with rules created in the national interest, and therefore we will be in a better position to respond. In other words, the coronavirus has toughened us up to manage even bigger issues down the track.

On the other hand, let’s say that Australia continues to recover magnificently from the Covid-19 abyss and that the prevailing world order looks like continuing into the 2030s and beyond. In some ways this is a worrying outlook because it could make us overly confident. Think about it. It would mean that with the exception of one really bad (self-inflicted) period last year, Australia will have had 30-plus years of unbroken economic prosperity.

We will have come through the pandemic better than most. We will have stared down trade-based bullying. We will have defended our sovereignty. And on the other side of this period of churn and concern there lies the prospect of even further prosperity for the Australian people. That kind of success delivers a self-assuredness.

Like most future outlooks, the reality probably lies somewhere in between. Coronavirus may turn out to be just one of a series of pandemics to be managed in the 21st century. And perhaps it is unrealistic to expect any prevailing world order to remain unchecked for decades without challenge.

In either case I think Australia is better placed to manage future challenges having endured the travails of the pandemic. And we’re fully awakened to the folly of outsourcing key capabilities and to selling off strategic assets. We are now practised in compliance and in pulling together. At the very least we’re likely to be much better insured, sitting at home patting our pets and perhaps even praying that we may continue to live in peace and prosperity, free of fear and of infection.