Where Do We Go From Here? - Musings on the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic
This is not the post I expected or planned to be writing this month. I had some idea of how I wanted to plan out the first few months of 2020 on my blog, but I've found myself unable to think, let alone write, about anything much besides the current pandemic.
The world around us has shifted so rapidly over the past weeks and months. What started as a few cases of a mysterious virus very quickly snowballed into the avalanche we're facing today. With over 1.6 million cases worldwide, and over a hundred thousand of those cases resulting in lives lost, the number of people grieving right now because of COVID-19 must surely be in the millions. And yet, we're being asked by governing bodies to remove the humanity from all of it and instead look at numbers and statistics and take the position of "it could be worse".
Many news outlets are now scrambling to shift the focus away from the failings of right-wing governments in protecting their citizens. If you live in a country where, like in the UK, the government was slow on introducing social distancing measures despite the evidence that they were necessary, make no mistake - your government has failed you. And when the worst of this passes and we go back to something resembling normal, we must hold those in power accountable for what they did. Or, more to the point, what they didn't do.
The world has been shaken; and although we may talk about "getting back to normal" in a few months, we should not be aiming to return to the system that allowed for this to happen in the first place. The virus spread so rapidly because of governments not taking responsibility for the wellbeing of their citizens, and corporations being under no obligation to provide sick pay for ill employees. As governments neglected to enact rent freezes, landlords were free to demand rent from tenants who should not have been going to work while ill. People working minimum wage jobs for companies that view them as disposable had their arms twisted into compromising their own health and the health of others in order to be able to pay the bills and buy food. These conditions were always the perfect breeding ground for a disaster like this. The virus itself may not be political, but the pandemic is.
This pandemic has highlighted the fact that our current capitalist system is easily fractured and unsustainable. It's shown that when push comes to shove, right-wing governments drop the mask and just come right out and say that they value money over human life. It's shown a lot of ugliness that was always there hidden just beneath the surface - but it's also shown what can happen when we work together and make sacrifices for the greater good.
While I'd feel callous talking about the "bright side" of such a tragedy, I hope that when the dust has settled we can work to create a better world post-COVID-19 and create a system based on compassion that isn't left vulnerable to a repeat of this in a decade or two.
The world around us has shifted so rapidly over the past weeks and months. What started as a few cases of a mysterious virus very quickly snowballed into the avalanche we're facing today. With over 1.6 million cases worldwide, and over a hundred thousand of those cases resulting in lives lost, the number of people grieving right now because of COVID-19 must surely be in the millions. And yet, we're being asked by governing bodies to remove the humanity from all of it and instead look at numbers and statistics and take the position of "it could be worse".
Many news outlets are now scrambling to shift the focus away from the failings of right-wing governments in protecting their citizens. If you live in a country where, like in the UK, the government was slow on introducing social distancing measures despite the evidence that they were necessary, make no mistake - your government has failed you. And when the worst of this passes and we go back to something resembling normal, we must hold those in power accountable for what they did. Or, more to the point, what they didn't do.
The world has been shaken; and although we may talk about "getting back to normal" in a few months, we should not be aiming to return to the system that allowed for this to happen in the first place. The virus spread so rapidly because of governments not taking responsibility for the wellbeing of their citizens, and corporations being under no obligation to provide sick pay for ill employees. As governments neglected to enact rent freezes, landlords were free to demand rent from tenants who should not have been going to work while ill. People working minimum wage jobs for companies that view them as disposable had their arms twisted into compromising their own health and the health of others in order to be able to pay the bills and buy food. These conditions were always the perfect breeding ground for a disaster like this. The virus itself may not be political, but the pandemic is.
This pandemic has highlighted the fact that our current capitalist system is easily fractured and unsustainable. It's shown that when push comes to shove, right-wing governments drop the mask and just come right out and say that they value money over human life. It's shown a lot of ugliness that was always there hidden just beneath the surface - but it's also shown what can happen when we work together and make sacrifices for the greater good.
While I'd feel callous talking about the "bright side" of such a tragedy, I hope that when the dust has settled we can work to create a better world post-COVID-19 and create a system based on compassion that isn't left vulnerable to a repeat of this in a decade or two.
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