Merchants and lockdowns: is Amazon really the enemy?
However, before stopping one's drive to evolve in the face of the decision to have identified an enemy, we must reflect and understand, because the risk in these phases is always the same: confusing the symptom with the disease.
The enemy who does not exist 'is
The reality is that there is no enemy. The reality is that this is an anomalous war, because while it pits us against each other, it is actually triggered by exogenous agents that have nothing to do with us, with them, with others. Politics says it, the Church says it, sociologists say it and without everyone saying it we have all understood it well: the pandemic generates friction, pits individuals against each other and it is natural for everyone to look around defensively . Thus, by projection, it also happens for all those who have a small business in their hands and find themselves disarmed in the face of the pandemic: in the face of the great change there are those who evolve and those who recriminate, but it is history that tells who of the two will be saved.In recent weeks, anti-Amazon signs have been seen several times during street protests by sectors that feel damaged by the closures and that demand equal treatment. As if to say: if you close us, you also close Amazon. In the wake of this drive, we are trying to reach pre-Christmas opening compromises, as if this could really change the fate of a season that was born badly and ended worse, knowing full well that this freedom represents an abnormal risk for the spring season. exhibitors.
Faced with anger, understanding and maximum tolerance are needed, because even the outburst is fair and understandable. However, we must not lose reason. It should not be done above all in respect of small companies that thanks to Amazon sell and bill every day (this is their Black Friday, even in full lockdown), nor towards those who have reinvented their activities in the presence of the pandemic, have activated systems delivery, they have built communities and all this without pointing the finger at imaginary enemies.
It must be done on the basis of past experience, when there was no street protest that did not lash out at the windows of a Blockbuster that would disappear in a few months: what was seen as the absolute evil of the global world, has been buried by the global world itself.
This does not mean that the reasoning about the weight of multinationals should not be deepened . Rather! This does not mean that we should not join the ranks as soon as possible on the topic of webtax. Rather! This does not mean that protection mechanisms should not be introduced for those who, in addition to having a weight on local economies, with their activities also carry out a role of social glue and usefulness as microscopic as it is fruitful. Rather! Simply, we must not indulge in anti-Amazon simplifications, as if lashing out against a brand can free us from all evil. It would be like taking off your mask to protest against a virus, after all. What happens, but it will not help anyone, least of all those who protest.
When this wave is over, the discourse will probably move to a much "higher" area than it has been in past years or in these months. The world of "then" will not be that of "before" and it will take a great collective effort to understand what are the corrective measures to be introduced on the global and labor market. But you will not be able to make arguments of this type if you allow yourself to be influenced by prejudices or sentences written with rancor. If we want everything to go well, now is the time to think not about who we were before all of this, but what we want to be after. As individuals, as professionals, as companies.
