In March 2020, people were waking up to a harsh reality. A catastrophic event was unfolding across the world. And then all hell broke loose.
I flew to Paris to attend an event with my fellow DMC'; where social distancing wasn’t the norm. We made merry, and drank, blissfully ignorant of something called Sars Covid-2 or Covid-19 as it's affectionately called now that was enveloping the Globe.
The mood that evening was belligerent, and I can't forget the words of my lovely friend Frederic Roman Hauduroy. Before coming to Paris, he criticised the Western Governments on social media, dismissing Covid as nothing but a chill that the world had caught and how it was all being blown out of proportion.
Cricket umpires have the DRS system to overturn a bad call. I wish there were one for overturning irresponsible statements and wrong predictions.
Fast forward to Sept 2021. Eighteen months have gone by, and three words have come to define the pandemic.
New Normal, Pivot, Light at the end of the Tunnel. Perfect crutches for those who live in an alternate reality. Or is it cognitive dissonance? We'll come to that word later.
Like many of my colleagues, my professional life had prepared me well for such situations (or so I thought). I have been through many life-altering events since I founded Incent with Meenu in 1982.
1984- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October.
1988 - Cyclone in Bangladesh left 5 million homeless and thousands more dead. It didn't affect my business.
1989 - Mandal students agitation. This one did.
1990 - Gulf War. Iraq
1991 - Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May. 1991.
1994 - Plague hit India Oct. 1994
1998 - Our daughter passed away.
2001 - 9/11 world changed.
2003 - Iraq War.
2008 - Global financial crisis (GFC) 9/15 World changed again.
2008 - 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks (that was a double whammy).
2010 - Arab Spring. 17 December 2010
2015 - Paris Terror Attacks. 13 November 2015.
and just when I thought I had seen it all?. Covid struck. It reset the world clock and irrevocably changed it. For those who could see it.
WFH became the NEW NORMAL. After 45 years in International Tourism, I was planning to PIVOT to domestic Tourism, and all this while I have been in darkness hoping to see LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
Light? At the end of the Tunnel? Even when there was light, it was a struggle in that feral world where the dog ate dog, and it's about to get worse. That's where cognitive dissonance comes in.
Leon Festinger was an American social psychologist who coined the phrase cognitive dissonance. It's been around since 1950 but gained relevance in the 21 century when people started going mental.
It's a psychological process that occurs when your perception of reality no longer matches the overwhelming evidence against it.
It's like saying I haven't quit smoking, but I smoke much less than I used to because I know smoking is bad for me. Get it?
Right now #eventprofs #incentiveprofessionals #traveldesigners #hotels are all suffering from cognitive dissonance. We have collectively spent so much time on social media creating an illusion, and "gung ho" is staggering. No wonder there was a discussion on Mental wellbeing recently.
A professional colleague wrote, "with the light at the end of the Tunnel, and we can slowly begin to dream again! We can't wait to explore all world"… etc. etc. etc. and he tagged me.
Another one wrote Let's kick off this year, 2021. its March. It's time to get back into the game! Which one? Hunger Games? or Game of Thrones?
Do we think that once we get jabbed, we are good to go? that is business as usual? that corporates will loosen their purse strings. ?
Have we factored in "covid related anxiety"? Will people attend large gatherings in closed spaces? What about Health and Safety Protocols? Will a Covid related demise on travel be equated with corporate manslaughter? What about Travel advisories? And finally, are we hoping that our clients (too) suffer from Cognitive dissonance? Like we are right now?
Have we factored in "covid related anxiety"? Will people attend large gatherings in closed spaces? What about Health and Safety Protocols? Will a Covid related demise on travel be equated with corporate manslaughter? What about Travel advisories? And finally, are we hoping that our clients (too) suffer from Cognitive dissonance? Like we are right now?
footnote
Let’s get real. The worst (not the best) is yet to come.
Reality distortion field (or RDF) is a term used to describe Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs' charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project. The term comes from Stark Trek, which explains how aliens created their own world through mental force.