Andrew Sullivan: "And this is the truth about reality. It really does exist (whatever the postmodernists might argue).."
The Chinese
dictatorship is, in fact, through recklessness and cover-up, responsible for a
global plague and tipping the entire world into a deep depression. It has also
corrupted the World Health Organization, which was so desperate for China’s
cooperation it swallowed Xi’s coronavirus lies and regurgutated them. At the
most critical juncture: mid-January, the WHO actually tweeted out
Communist Party propaganda: “Preliminary investigations by the Chinese
authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the
novel Coronavirus.”
On the same day, another WHO official was telling the world that there was “limited spread” of COVID-19 by human-to-human transmission, and alerted hospitals about the risk of super-spreading the virus. And so the virus has forced us to accept another discomforting reality: Integrating a communist dictatorship into a democratic world economy is a mug’s game. From now on, conscious decoupling is the order of the day.
Profit over people, cost over care: America's broken healthcare exposed by virus
On the same day, another WHO official was telling the world that there was “limited spread” of COVID-19 by human-to-human transmission, and alerted hospitals about the risk of super-spreading the virus. And so the virus has forced us to accept another discomforting reality: Integrating a communist dictatorship into a democratic world economy is a mug’s game. From now on, conscious decoupling is the order of the day.
Profit over people, cost over care: America's broken healthcare exposed by virus
In other cases, the
cold triumph of reality represented by the virus has been salutary. It’s been
remarkable to observe something Donald Trump cannot lie his way out of. He
tried. And he’s still trying. He’s gaming out various ways to get himself
reelected in a pandemic, but the pandemic keeps reminding us that this is in
its control, not his. His performances are not informing anyone about
anything: they are failing attempts to impose a narrative on an epidemic which
has its own narrative, and doesn’t give two fucks about Trump.
And this is the truth
about reality. It really does exist (whatever the postmodernists might argue).
It’s complicated. And even if it can be ignored or forgotten in our very human
discourses, it wins in the end. This virus is, in a way, a symbol of that
reality. It can be stymied for a while; it can be suppressed and avoided. It
can be controlled so it doesn’t overwhelm us in one fell swoop, metastasizing
the damage. But it is unbeatable and is winning this war, as it was always
going to, and only a vaccine can make a real difference.
The coming months will
be an unsatisfying series of starts and stops as we struggle to live with it.
We are not, in other words, fighting and winning this war: we are merely
negotiating the terms of our surrender to reality. And there is nothing more
humbling for humans than that. And nothing more clarifying either....
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/andrew-sullivan-time-for-conscious-uncoupling-with-china.html
Delilah Friedler: Capitalism Is
America’s Religion. The Virus Makes That Clear
American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
