3 ms·

Yeah, that is a very good point. The emergency reactions to societal failure (not entirely due to capitalism, but in some cases due to capitalism) are by nature

Yeah, that is a very good point. The emergency reactions to societal failure (not entirely due to capitalism, but in some cases due to capitalism) are by nature very authoritarian, which leads to the erosion of normal governance. My home country is already putting in place emergency measures that are likely to last until after the emergency is over and are conveniently very useful for maintaining a grip on power. We've been looking at deploying the military too, which at the very least is going to increase tensions and potentially lead to unrest. I mourn the potential damage to democracy almost as much as I mourn the lives lost because democracy being severely damaged by this incident will hurt future generations.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
I meant something a tad different. Survivors will look back at how badly the West handled the pandemic and vote authoritarians in willingly. And it will be fully justified at that moment. The danger being, of course, that authoritarianism is hard to root out and gets worse over time. Because it will be hard to deny that a faster, stronger reaction and a few beatings here and there would've spared a lot of future suffering and loss of life. You won't be able to say with a straight face that letting idiots do their idiocy is a small price to pay for freedom. To be clear: I don't like the authoritarian future I predict. But I would love to see military on the streets right fucking now, instead of reading every single day a story about some idiot breaking quarantine to run some errands, and in process shutting down a store, a clinic or a hospital ward.