The past holds lessons, not warnings, about our current Global Crises

People are turning to the past to contextualize the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 racial injustice and anti-police violence uprisings. But doom-and-gloom predictions or overly hopeful takes are often simplistic comparisons between the past and now. Our research has shown that while events like pandemics and social unrest cause suffering, they also create opportunities for people to create more just systems. At the same time, people profiting off the old system will be using these crises to their advantage as well.