If you are already familiar with the Human Value Index, the title of this blog post might feel a bit uncomfortable. After all, 2020 has been bad enough and despite the prevailing optimism about next year, there is no guarantee that things are going to improve. Sure, a vaccine against the Covid-19 might eliminate the pandemic, lockdowns could become unnecessary and the sacrosanct routines that regulate the lives of the vast majority of citizens will, hopefully, prevail once again. In an ideal world, this would amount to flawless logic: kill the new problem to bring back the old normal. Sounds simple, right? Well...actually no.
The truth is that even if the world manages to restore its previous order, several changes are now irreversible. Expecting them to go away would be like hoping that an extinct creature will suddenly revive. It will not happen. I will not list all the changes in question since there are too many but this comparison made by one of my friends provides an interesting explanation: "Before the pandemic, the world was like boiling water. It did not matter whether the temperature was at 88 or 97 degrees. We were still dealing with water. But the pandemic has pushed the temperature beyond 100 degrees and now we are dealing with gas. You cannot manage gas like you manage water. Do you get it? And I'm pretty sure that the temperature will not decrease. It's gas all the way now." He definitely has a point.
But back to the Human Value Index. What does the transition that was mentioned previously have to do with the application that rules the world of Market Dystopia? To answer this question, let us first highlight something perfectly real: in 2020 your value as an individual within the context of a global city either increased or decreased. If you live in a city such as London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong or any other large metropolis, your value in this type of environment is always being questioned in direct and indirect ways. Progressing despite the significant odds presented by these environments is a huge achievement in itself considering the fact that it is very easy to get overwhelmed by these urban jungles. I call them jungles because their inhabitants are always being served with battles that they could do without. I'm referring to things such as escalating costs, factors that have negative impacts on health, risk of redundancy, toxic relationships, unreasonable people that don't think before they act...the list goes on.
This brings me to the second point: assuming that you did make progress in all the key areas of your life in 2020, what are the odds that you will do better in 2021? If your value on the HVI scale was at 325 points, what will you have to do to push it to 400 points? Better still, how will you get into a higher value range which will bring more opportunities, more prosperity, a better life, greater control over your future etc? You might be tempted to think that moving up does not matter since you are happy with your current HVI level. But here's the trap when it comes to global cities: stagnation is usually the first step before decline. It is an insidious process that is rooted in the modern-day obsession for comfort and whatever the word "security" means in the twenty-first century. Aiming to keep things as they are in a post-pandemic world is a surefire way to let a global city stamp all over you. Are things as bad as I think they are? I believe them to be if you are still swimming in water instead of floating in gas. That's not pessimism. Just unpopular realism. Happy reading,
Ashley Boolell
Market Dystopia is available in the Amazon Bookstore on the following links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon France
Intro video here
