I think Arundhati Roy is incorrect here - historically. Pandemics have rarely forced humans to break with their past. On the contrary, among the survivors, the more organized of them will double down and press forward even faster. https://twitter.com/HamishH1931/status/1246364196037689344

Post 1917, capitalism, Communism, fascism rose aggressively.
Post 1830s cholera, British imperialism rose to new heights. Post 13th-16thC plagues, in China/Europe -- the power of feudal aristocracy rose to new heights. 2/3

What Pandemics do is undermine the hypocrisies of an extant order that holds any society together. Extremes are the natural outcomes out of pandemics, because those who will survive have little reason to abandon beliefs. There is no reason why Corona shd be any different. 3/3

Here, Sanjay Subrahmanyam:

"when the dust has settled around.. this pandemic...it'll be a world of lesser & greater, interdependent yet competing powers, some very close to empires, in an acceleration of tendencies already visible in 2010 or 2015." https://amp.scroll.in/article/968203/sanjay-subrahmanyam-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-prove-a-turning-point-in-history