ROARING REBEL TWENTIES

'Pandemics are not new to the human species - they're just new to us.' 

So says Nicholas Christakis in 'Apollo's Arrow.'  It's not often you can read a book with a historical and real time perspective. Christakis is a physican and professor who has spent years researching how ideas, behaviours and germs spread, and this book covers in detail 'the profound and enduring impact of coronavirus on the way we live.'

What drew me to the book, is to try and understand what happens after a pandemic, which can shake us to their core but speed up change that might have otherwise taken a generation. As he says 'plagues reshape societies.'

The Black Death of the 14th Century saw the end of the feudal system and helped ignite the Renaissance, especially in politics and philosophy. After the Spanish Flu we had the Roaring Twenties 'The 1918 pandemic stimulated developments in microbiology and public health...tremendous advances in physics, space science and engineering.'

Not to mention a Joie de Vivre - people wanted to party!

When my nan watched the East End burn during the Blitz she thought it was the end of the world. And it was the end of her old world as society transformed. The City of London streets where everyone knew everyone would be bombed out of existence and people scattered, ending up in new towns like Slough.

Covid-19 has detonated a similar social upheaval bomb .

At the beginning of the first lock down I said how football needed to grab this chance to change. Of course with its entrenched greed that was never going to happen and instead we had Project Big Picture written to favour, unsurprisingly, the Big Six clubs. A deal so bad even the government told them to stop taking the piss. However, a very quiet transfer deadline day shows how even those at the top are being more cautious. But League 1 and 2 players are still not being tested regularly, while the National League response has been a masterclass in Dads Army dithering.

Instead of leadership it's been left to clubs to decide whether to carry on despite no cash or testing. Not so very long we were a homeless financial basket-case, so our strong message about refusing loans was welcome. "We have no intention of jeopardising the long-term future of the club just to try and finish one season. Our players and managers have worked hard to get us to Step 2 and we would hate for that to have been in vain. Having a club for you all to come back to, whenever that may be, is far more important to us."

We all get wedded to old ideas especially if it benefits us. 'Denial is a very primitive and fundamental human defense. And lying about it has been seen from time immemorial' Christakis says. Despite rising temperatures and relentless extreme weather events across the globe, many can't or don't want to see how to act to tackle climate change. Like covid deniers taking their last breath to the disease, I imagine some people will be up to their necks in water or watching their houses burn before screaming why something hadn't been done sooner.

But we have also seen the best in humanity as Christakis points out 'We're going to beat this virus, precisely by working together, precisely by sharing information, precisely by recognizing we all have a shared interest in what happens to all of us….We are not the first people alive to face this ancient threat, but we are the first generation ever to face it at a time when we can manufacture a specific countermeasure like a vaccine in real time. So it's a miracle, truly unprecedented, that we accomplished this.'

When covid was coming over the horizon it was hard to comprehend as we batttened down the hatches and everything that was fun ground to a halt. There's not going to a rapid return to normal but if 'The Rebels' seize the moment when it arrives, Slough Town can be part of a new Roaring Twenties.

Just like Arbour Park being repurposed from football ground to testing centre, our community pub going from serving pints to meals on wheels to the most vulnerable: if we are willing to change, to grab new opportunities and adapt to a new world then the club will flourish. Play our match day welcome card right, and people will be flocking not just for the football but to enjoy each others company, with a right old knees-up on packed terraces. Maybe we need to get a piano.

'Life will return to normal. Plagues always end. And like plagues, hope is an enduring part of the human condition.'

To get a flavour of the book listen to this podcast