We are at a crossroads. Society will be changed forever, just as it was after 9/11, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, and the medieval Plague—and just as it was by the environmental movement, feminism, liberation consciousness, democracy emerging in many countries where it had been a stranger…

Can we shape these changes to be more like that second set of experiences? I think so, but it won’t be easy. Powerful forces are already pushing to bail out the very same economic sectors that have been bringing us to crisis: fossil fuels, tobacco, nuclear power, chemiculture-based agribusiness—and consolidating and material wealth among those who already have it, while defunding people’s needs and putting draconian programs into place to further oppress the already marginalized.

But like every other crisis, there are lots of opportunities to better the world, and ourselves. Despite the deaths and other losses, it is possible that we could come through the other side a lot closer to utopia than we are now. (This doesn’t mean we won’t have to grieve, that we won’t experience some pretty horrible things.)

I just finished reading The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, by the chief negotiators of the Paris Climate Accord (reviewed below). The authors offer a worst-case scenario, but also a best-case. And the best case is pretty terrific. So, like catastrophic climate change, if we focus on creating the best possible outcomes, the world we inherit could actually be a pretty good place to live.

And a lot of companies and nonprofits are using this time to do good. I attended an online presentation by Whitney Dailey for Conscious Capitalism Boston, and she shared some terrific examples:

• Voluntarily shifting manufacturing capacity to supply essentials: Anheuser-Busch is producing and distributing sanitizer, General Motors is ramping up to make ventilators, and a hotel is opening its rooms to medical personnel who need to self-isolate.

• Helping employees who can’t work: Starbucks, Walmart, and Shopify have all committed to paying bonuses to their workers. Many smaller socially conscious businesses are also paying even furloughed workers. Our local independent movie theater, Amherst Cinema in Amherst, Massachusetts, is one such business. This is a huge sacrifice for small firms with small reserves, ongoing bills, and no customers at the moment.

• Keeping employees working, but shifting their duties: Workers at L.L. Bean are boxing up food for a food bank in Maine, where the company is headquartered. Several big tech firms have diverted their workers to running a disease tracking site.

• Nonprofits such as the new Restaurant Strong Fund and Boston Artist Relief Fund have provided basic living expenses for restaurant workers and artists, respectively.

• Many companies have gotten rid of their paywalls, or limited their scope. News outlets from the mighty New York Times to small local papers like my area’s Daily Hampshire Gazette have put all their virus coverage in a non-paywall area. Cultural institutions and individual artists have released a ton of work for public view (I’m listening to a Berlin Philharmonic concert as I write this, and last night, I watched an Andrew Lloyd Weber musical—both made available at no charge).

• Back in the last recession, Hyundai offered an innovative program: if a buyer lost employment, Hyundai would buy the car back from its customer. They are bringing it back.

These are all great initiatives. But could we find ways to leverage the virus for systemic change? Several of my favorite “practical visionaries” including Gil Friend, Christiana Figueres, Mitch Anthony, Frances Moore Lappe, and George Lakey, among others, have been talking informally about this:

• Dominating the discussions: Is this the moment to finally achieve universal health care in the US, as most of the rest of the world has had for generations?

• Closely following: Does the drastic reduction in pollution because fewer factories are running, fewer cars are on the road, and much less construction is happening give us a chance to press hard on climate change, at the very least meeting the Paris goals ahead of schedule (Meanwhile, the unenlightened US government is using the crisis to roll back what limited environmental protections we’ve managed to achieve). HINT: The Green New Deal already provides a pretty good roadmap. Can we get it passed?

• Occasionally heard: Could we leverage the drastic changes to dismantle rapacious out-of-control mega-corporations that think only about profit, and instead build a system where everyone has enough to eat, a place to live, healthcare, education, meaningful work, etc., perhaps using a model of interrelated local and regional communities and ecosystems?

• Proposed by Chris Brogan: seeing the changing world as an invitation to a pick-up ball game or an open music jam: we reinvent it as we create it and it’s never the same twice.

I’d love to get your comments on these ideas.