I had practically forgotten this blog exists, so rarely have
I used it in longer than recent time, however events prompt me to put a few
scribblings out, which I think deserve a bit more posterity and presence than
Facebook ephemera does.
Whilst the corona virus call it what you will (the name is a product of linguistic hegemony and social construction anyway) has caught Governments and Society off guard, it is an entirely natural phenomenon, and in the scheme of things inevitable given the concentration of populations, and travel patterns led by easy availability of cheap air travel. The encroachment of human society on the animal world has also made this more possible.
What it has done, apart from revealing some of the worst of human herd behaviour, has forced Governments into recognition that they do not control the waves as it were. Eventually they will all be forced into taking similar actions because that is what circumstances demand. The fact that here in the UK and elsewhere popular institutions have acted before Governments as a means of logical self preservation shows that ultimately Government is a reflection of society rather than a model or leader of it.
Anthropologists and Sociologists will be loving this, and although there is already a flurry of self publishing and blogs like this, the long term studies and books will be written when academia settles back into normality, probably with a technological shift which has been quickened by the events, just as wars have led to changes in industrial process and ultimately led to health reform in the form of socialised medicine.
Capitalism has been dealt a blow, make no mistake, look at the stock exchange that outdated and artificial barometer of capital that represents the triumph of notional financial capital over real fixed capital, supply and demand etc. Panic buying instincts have led to there own market adjustments as wholesale retail recognises that there are physical limits to supply and therefore take rational (reasonable rationing) action.
Maybe this may signal the decline of populist governments as the blustering demogogues prove to be as powerless as the mythical King Canute’s episode with the waves. (Ironically Canute ruled the waves rather well as the King of a mighty trans European sea power)
As Alec Douglas Home once said in answer to his political critics “events, dear boy, events”
Whilst the corona virus call it what you will (the name is a product of linguistic hegemony and social construction anyway) has caught Governments and Society off guard, it is an entirely natural phenomenon, and in the scheme of things inevitable given the concentration of populations, and travel patterns led by easy availability of cheap air travel. The encroachment of human society on the animal world has also made this more possible.
What it has done, apart from revealing some of the worst of human herd behaviour, has forced Governments into recognition that they do not control the waves as it were. Eventually they will all be forced into taking similar actions because that is what circumstances demand. The fact that here in the UK and elsewhere popular institutions have acted before Governments as a means of logical self preservation shows that ultimately Government is a reflection of society rather than a model or leader of it.
Anthropologists and Sociologists will be loving this, and although there is already a flurry of self publishing and blogs like this, the long term studies and books will be written when academia settles back into normality, probably with a technological shift which has been quickened by the events, just as wars have led to changes in industrial process and ultimately led to health reform in the form of socialised medicine.
Capitalism has been dealt a blow, make no mistake, look at the stock exchange that outdated and artificial barometer of capital that represents the triumph of notional financial capital over real fixed capital, supply and demand etc. Panic buying instincts have led to there own market adjustments as wholesale retail recognises that there are physical limits to supply and therefore take rational (reasonable rationing) action.
Maybe this may signal the decline of populist governments as the blustering demogogues prove to be as powerless as the mythical King Canute’s episode with the waves. (Ironically Canute ruled the waves rather well as the King of a mighty trans European sea power)
As Alec Douglas Home once said in answer to his political critics “events, dear boy, events”
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