March 27, 2020
In the Same Boat
Washington, for much of the 21st century, has been consumed by the specter of manufactured threats – the Islamic threat, the Iranian threat, the Iraqi threat, the immigrant threat, the Russian threat, and the Chinese threat.
Comes now the real-life Coronavirus threat, which makes a mockery of the aforementioned threat perceptions. This threat is borderless, nontribal, nonsectarian, and nondiscriminatory. It is neither black, white, yellow, or brown. It is colorless, insidious, and invisible. The threat is not to the US but to us.
70 years ago, there was a movie made, “Panic in the Streets.” It depicted the imminent threat of a plague that provoked panic. That was 1950. In 2020, it is real-time facts imitating art. Those who profited from stoking fears of the “Other” are now entrapped in the cauldron of their own making, for which there is no vaccine.
COVID-19 virus is likely to reshape how the world lives.
In the short term, arguably, it could even affect Trump’s reelection prospects, in that people in a time of disarray seek a reassuring, stabilizing presence at the top. Biden could be the incidental beneficiary.
The past three decades have been marked by chest-thumping triumphal claims of being the sole superpower – claims that now appear puerile. Mother Nature has a way of occasionally reminding who is the actual Sole Superpower. Faith fights fear.
Western society already is plagued by an epidemic of loneliness, necessitating in Britain the formation of a Ministry of Loneliness. Ask those who have endured solitary confinement in jail what it does to mental health and the human condition.
Hardest hit are the sick, elderly, and the disabled. The slogan of social distancing may not work out for those who need more solace and companionship.
Social distancing is a counter-strike on the healing power of human contact, including hugs and handshakes. It can easily morph into every man for himself. Taken positively, it can be a teaching moment balancing self-vigilance with empathy for others.
Humanity is in the same boat. The transcendental threat now to human civilization exposes the fraudulent nature of the manufactured “clash of civilizations.” It is a salutary lesson particularly for the West which had been led to delude itself into a know-it-all and know-better posture. Can deep cleaning be an exterminator for superstitious fear? Self-questioning and self-correction beckons.
Avoiding individuals who are coughing or sneezing is sensible. However, when people start believing that lethal menace lurks in handshakes and on innocuous objects like elevator buttons, gas station pumps, restaurant counters, door knobs, and faucet handles, it is, in effect, the jailing of the mind. Frequent washing of the hands can do the needful.
When the need of the hour is prudence, not panic, extreme over-reaction can unleash its own unintended ripple effects, which may not be easy to mitigate.
COVID-19 2020 is a classic “black swan” event – a rare event, unexpected, unpredictable, and easier to examine on retrospective reflection. The term was popularized by Lebanon-born risk-theorist, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his 2007 book, “The Black Swan.”
Discussion persists on how Nazism and Fascism spread so swiftly in “enlightened” Europe. Looking around today, one may observe the march of folly and the submissive capitulation to the herd mentality. Dread can become the coin of the realm when the mind is infected and over-tested with fear and paranoia.
Now may be the time for fresh inspiration and imagination.
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