Lessons in Fragility and Frugality By James Reed

     One thing that I think the coronapocalpyse should have taught normies, is that most of modern life is just bs and we can do without almost all of it, and would be better off to. Brett Stevens is smarter than me, as I am nobody, and nothing, and proud of it, and he puts it well:
  http://www.amerika.org/politics/antisocial/

“Crises tend to reveal us, just as characters in novels only come to know themselves when pushed. Our brush with the Wuhan AIDS-Flu has shown two things: first, that our society has no internal loyalty or trust; second, that we can do without most of it and are in fact better off. Did we need three hundred different types of soft drinks? Nope, we needed water, meat/veg, and toilet paper. Did we need three thousand government agencies? Nope, just basic law enforcement. We did not need the entertainment industry, most of the media, or politicians either. People are starting to notice that life without the endless activity for the sake of activity of modern society is not only more peaceful, but less ugly: Within days of the closure, Venetians were startled to see that their canals and perimeter waterways be calmed. Without the usual human tumult churning the waters, the canals were suddenly still and clear. Tourism exists because people need a substitute for the actual good life. They work all year doing little of importance at their tool jobs, taking demands seriously that amount to little more than people grandstanding to seem important so they can claim more money. This money, by the way, comes from the past, and the inventions we made from structured law through technology that enable us to get by with less work. Instead of taking time off, however, we are all in competition for importance, thanks to equality, so we all labor endlessly on make-work.

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Corona-Madness: Authoritarianism Is Not The Answer! By Daniel McAdams

     Throughout the country, bureaucrats and politicians are clamping down on the Constitution in the name of fighting a virus that thus far has not shown itself more deadly than the seasonal flu. Those numbers can change and it can be a serious disease, but as after 9/11 we are being told we must sacrifice our liberties in the name of security. Government did not deliver then and it will not deliver now. Liberty stolen will not be returned. Is there a better way? Watch today's Liberty Report:

  https://youtu.be/085N-m6-yfA

Source: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/march/30/corona-madness-authoritarianism-is-not-the-answer/

Anarcho-Tyranny Update By Charles Taylor

     Despite anarcho-tyrannical moves to restrict personal movement, and personal everything, the coronavirus continues to spread across the US, with New York receiving, what the mainstream media calls an “apocalyptic surge” in cases. Sure, some dispute this, but my view is to be cautious, this is not a time for bold denial of anything, but to carefully watch the territory, guarding one’s supply of beef and beans.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-reports-largest-jump-new-cases-deaths-apocalyptic-surge-rocks-new-york-hospitals

     Still, this crisis has pushed the buttons putting the system into pandemic paranoia  mode, with this case from Chicago being now typical of what the system is doing, and will do:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chicago-mayor-warns-those-who-go-outside-exercise-risk-arrest

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Study! COVID-19 affects men/women more than all other genders combined

     BALTIMORE, MD—A new study by Johns Hopkins University found that the novel coronavirus is impacting men and women more than all the other genders combined. According to the study, 100% of coronavirus cases have affected men and women and not a single other gender. "It's incredible - we've found this virus is far more likely to affect biological males and biological females than any other biological gender," said Head of Gender Research Dr. Benji Charmin. "We thought the data had to be flawed, but we checked again and again, and sure enough, this thing is aggressively going after men and women and ignoring the other genders entirely." He shrugged. "It's just science." Progressives quickly applauded the virus for not attacking any of the other genders and only focusing on traditional, outdated, binary genders. "Finally, a virus that ignores the demiboys, dragonkin, and those who identify as tater tots," said one activist in Portland. "It's about time the tables were turned. Thanks, COVID-19!" He then headed over to his local Communist cafe to lick a doorknob -- "just my little way of showing my gratitude."

Source Article: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/03/study-covid-19-affects-menwomen-more-than-all-other-genders-combined.html

Apocalyptic Meditations By Paul Walker

     Here is some essential home viewing for people contemplating the coming economic collapse and the breakdown of the rule of law (police and armed forces get infected, desert their dessert in the desert, etc)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goOk8V_vmuE
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwc9QOQjoJQ
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDFoF3izhGQ

    And here is the case put that this pandemic is serious and will get worse; remember this may not be true, but we need to be wise and listen to all points of view because our side is divided on this issue for the moment, but as Willy the Shake said, “the truth will out.”
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-26-new-estimates-school-of-medicine-80000-coronavirus-deaths-in-usa.html

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Social Distancing as a Way of Life By Chris Knight

     The question needs to be asked about the longer-term socio-psychological and bio-evolutionary effects of social distancing, and social isolation, if this corona bug crisis spills into months, years, decades, centuries … for according to neo-Darwinian, humans will start evolving into solitary non-social creatures, maybe even eventually reproducing asexually/vegetatively, like aphids and many plants, if the right random mutations occur, and they always do. 
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8154769/Governments-use-social-media-enforce-coronavirus-lockdowns.html
  https://www.zdnet.com/article/harvard-researchers-social-distancing-during-covid-19-may-have-to-be-turned-on-and-off-like-a-spigot/
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/26/thugs-stealing-nurse-ids-get-free-coronavirus-food-drink/

“For those wondering how long they'll have to be in quarantine because of the COVID-19 respiratory disease, the question for those in the US may not be how long, but how many times. Work posted on the medRxiv pre-print server Tuesday by a group of researchers at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston suggests that multiple targeted periods of "social distancing" of various kinds will likely be necessary for the US before any vaccine is found for the disease. There's a tension in fighting COVID-19: So-called herd immunity needs to be built up, which requires that the disease be allowed to spread to some extent, for without exposure, that immunity will never be built. But the disease must not spread so much that it overwhelms the US's medical resources. In "Social distancing strategies for curbing the COVID-19 epidemic," authors Stephen Iissler, Christine Tedijanto, Marc Lipsitch, and Yonatan Grad of the Chan School write that "a single period of social distancing will not be sufficient." Paradoxically, going into an intense quarantine with nothing to follow it can actually be counter-productive. Without repeated intervals of distancing, "there was a resurgence of infection when the simulated social distancing measures were lifted" in the model scenarios they ran. The authors found that a resurgence could happen even after especially arduous periods of distancing, such as a 20-week period of social distancing. "The social distancing is so effective that virtually no population immunity is built." Instead, the authors argue interventions need to be made multiple times over a period of time, called "intermittent distancing," at intervals that depend upon the state of the health care infrastructure at any moment in time, meaning, how much load it can absorb of critical care cases of the disease. "Intermittent social distancing can maintain critical care demand within current thresholds," they advise.”

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The killer flu outbreak is to blame for a 42 per cent spike in deaths across England and Wales, statisticians claim

Published: 02:16 AEDT, 28 February 2018 | Updated: 03:36 AEDT, 28 February 2018   

Government figures reveal 64,157 people died in January - significantly higher than the death toll of 45,141 recorded in December. It is the highest number since records began in 2006 - and only the second time it has breached 60,000. 'Circulating influenza' was blamed in the report, released today and compiled using data of deaths from each region. It showed deaths were higher than levels recorded during the Swine flu pandemic in 2010 - considered the worst outbreak in recent years. The Office for National Statistics report showed a similar trend in deaths was seen in all nine regions of England and Wales itself. It read: 'Circulating influenza is likely to be a contributing factor in the high number of deaths registered in January 2018.' Some 10,011 deaths were recorded in the South East, followed by 8,625 in the North West and 7,110 in the East of England. At the other end of the scale, 3,503 people died in the North East in January, 3,945 in Wales and 5,401 in the East Midlands. Latest figures show the flu outbreak has killed at least 271 people, but this is likely to be an underestimate because it only counts for confirmed hospital deaths.

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China’s Organ Harvest in the Plague Years By James Reed

     We have been covering the issue of China’s forced organ harvesting when material comes available, such as this:
  https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/03/26/china-boasts-coronavirus-lung-transplants-evidence-mounts-organ-harvesting/

“Chinese state media recently boasted about a successful double-lung transplant operation to treat the Wuhan coronavirus, the Epoch Times noted Wednesday, amid growing evidence that the Communist Party is harvesting the organs of religious minorities and political prisoners to sell on the black market. In February, state propaganda outlet Global Times reported that a Chinese medical team “successfully carried out the world’s first double-lung transplant” for a patient suffering from the coronavirus, describing it as a move of “great significance in reducing critical cases.” “The transplanted lungs were donated by a non-local patient after brain death and transported to Wuxi by high-speed railway in seven hours,” the article notes. As noted by the Epoch Times, a Chinese American newspaper associated with the persecuted Fang Gong religious movement, the fact that brain-dead donors with all the matching characteristics, including blood and tissue type, were available just before the surgery was performed seems uncannily convenient. A majority of China’s organ transplants reportedly come from harvesting those of non-consensual “donors” who belong to persecuted religious minorities such as Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners.

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Biden and Rape By Mrs Vera West

     America must be getting used to the absurd becoming normality, as presidential candidate Joe Biden faces his latest rape accusation, and his team are in damage control:
  https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/03/27/joe-biden-faces-new-sexual-assault-allegation-from-former-staffer/
  https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/03/27/joe-bidens-campaign-paid-806k-to-pr-firm-tied-to-new-metoo-allegation/

“Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, is facing a new sexual assault allegation from a former congressional staffer. Tara Reade, who came forward last year to accuse Biden have inappropriately touched her in the 1990s, revealed earlier this week during an interview on the podcast of New York City blogger Katie Halper that there was more to the story. According to Reade, while working as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office in 1993, she was asked by one of her colleagues to deliver a “gym bag” to the senator. When Reade caught up with Biden, she alleges, he pressed up against a wall and proceeded to kiss her. “It happened all at once, and then… his hands were on me and underneath my clothes,” Reade told Halper, elaborating on the alleged assault in detail. And then he went down my skirt and then up inside it. And he penetrated me with his fingers, whatever. And he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying something to me. He said several things and I can’t remember everything [that] he said. I remember a couple of things. I remember his saying, first, like as he was doing it, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ and then him saying to me, when I pulled away, he got finished doing what he was doing and I, how I was pulled back and he said, ‘Come on man, I heard you liked me.’ That phrase stayed with me because I kept thinking what I might have said. And I can’t remember exactly if he said ‘I thought’ or if ‘I heard.’ It’s like he implied that I had done this. “For me, everything shattered in that moment,” she added. “He wasn’t trying to do anything more. But I looked up to him. He was my father’s age. He was this champion of women’s rights in my eyes and I couldn’t believe it was happening.”

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The Coronavirus Loves the Elites Too By Brian Simpson

     Here we do not wish ill health upon anyone, but I note that many elites have caught the corona virus, the latest being British prime minster Boris Johnson:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52060791

     Boris himself is of the view that things will get worse before getting better, that there is more misery to come:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-52079922

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Should the Media be Shut Down Too? By James Reed

     It is not all bad; I am delighted by what this present bug crisis has done to the evil universities, who still exist, but are largely on-line, where they have minimal mischief, largely chattering amongst themselves. Why, academics were so scared for their lungs, that students could not believe how fast they ran to their homes to lock down with their bottles of fine wine. Anyway, let’s move on to closing down the mainstream media now for even more peace.
  https://gellerreport.com/2020/03/why-isnt-the-media-forced-to-shut-down-stay-home-the-way-we-are.html/
  https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/why-media-exempt-coronavirus-business-shutdowns-daniel-greenfield/#.Xn5e_Xtd-VU.twitter

“"You're actually sitting too close," President Trump remarked at a press briefing. "Really, we should probably get rid of about 75, 80 percent of you.” Trump was only partly joking. The White House Correspondents Association had asked its members to sit one seat apart at press briefings, but at a time when most businesses have been shut down even when they offer far more space to customers and employees, the sight of crowded press briefings is still surreally hypocritical. Governor Jared Polis delivered his press briefing on social distancing surrounded by a huddle of other Colorado officials, including a sign language translator, and tightly packed reporters facing him. That’s not unusual. Governors and mayors have announced the shutdown of countless businesses for the sake of social distancing in the same format that is the opposite of social distancing. The exemption for the media from coronavirus rules extends beyond these strange scenes. When Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order effectively shutting down most New York non-essential businesses, the list of essential organizations exempted from the order included hospitals, power plants, pharmacies, farms, banks, supermarkets, and the media. One of these items is not like the others. The essential businesses provide necessary services that allow people to function.

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Without Rule of Law; On Home Defence Security When TSHTF/TEOTWAWKI By John Steele

     The Canadian Prepper site, run by a guy who is non-white and highly intelligent and articulate, so take that Leftoids, has dealt with the situation of social breakdown arising from situations that societies are now in.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWDw6nF4DKY

Check out his “Urban Survival Strategies.” In fact, everything at his site is good for people new to the wild and woolly world of apocalyptic collapse. Since people will have more time on their hands, here is a solid hour or two’s viewing on the Tube, maybe having a few stiff drinks while viewing:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goOk8V_vmuE
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTi79ikrdQY
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAp4Dw5SiU
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0yjbTckQTc

How Will a Consumer Soft Generation Survive Hardship? By John Steele

     Bernard Salt is someone that James Reed has been criticising for years, on the immigration issue, Salt being a big Australia kind of bloke. But, apart from that he does some thoughtful pieces like this one which talks about something few in the MSM ever get to: the softness of the present generation comparted to those who struggled through the Great Depression.
  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/how-the-coronavirus-might-change-australia/news-story/c3a0889ed3df4dbf80fbb69f0b7226b4?

“We modern Australians are not a hardy people, and have not been collectively subjected to truly harsh times such as war or depression. In some ways it is harder for us to manage adversity because we are the product of prosperity. But manage adversity we must, and we will. Let us now ensure that we learn the lessons and work to create a stronger, safer and more resilient Australia.”

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Cappy Capitalism’s Letter to the World’s Journalists By Chris Knight

     Libertarian economist “Captain Capitalism,” who is unafraid of attacking the system, has penned this open letter to the world’s journalists:

“Dear Journalists and Journalism Majors,
In light of the recent layoffs in your "profession" I think you need to know where your place in this world is, especially given the state of journalism these past few decades.

You are completely unnecessary.
You are not "critical" to the economy, let alone society.
The vast majority of you are lazy adult children who didn't want to try hard in college, but had the added flaw of being arrogant enough at 17 years of age to think you knew better AND other people should listen to you.
You are propagandists.
Liars.
Political pawns.
Yellow journalists.
Brown journalists.
The scum of the Earth.

The average citizen with the freedom of speech and an internet connect is a drastically superior journalist, as well as human being to you.

Please FOAD.  You offer nothing of value to society.  You are worthless human beings.

Sincerely,
People with Real Jobs Who Work for a Living

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Birmingham and the Great Replacement By Charles Taylor (Florida)

     American Renaissance has begun a series of articles about the Great Replacement of whites by everyone else in the West, by authors Gregory hood, Henry Wolff and Paul Kersey, who are vets in this most terrible field of research. Here is some material on Birmingham, and I dread reading the next depressing piece:
  https://www.amren.com/blog/2020/03/birmingham-after-desegregation/

“People used to call Birmingham, Alabama the “Magic City.” Today, it’s the Tragic City. Massive steel plants sprang up after the Civil War, and Birmingham grew rapidly in the first half of the 1900s. In the 1960s, however, it became a key battleground in the Civil Rights movement, with Martin Luther King leading desegregation efforts. Civil rights campaigners got what they wanted: Birmingham desegregated. Today, it’s a majority-black city with poverty, bad schools, and high crime. Although we usually associate industry with the North, Birmingham used to be the largest iron- and steel-producing area in the country. Many workers in the furnaces were black, but the city was segregated: Blacks and whites lived in different neighborhoods. King and other civil rights organizers launched a campaign against segregation in 1963 that was a huge public-relations success. “But for Birmingham,” said President John Kennedy at a White House meeting to plan what became Civil Rights Act of 1964, “we wouldn’t be here.” Today, American schoolchildren learn about Birmingham, Eugene “Bull” Connor, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s campaign in 1963. They don’t learn what happened afterwards. Between 1960 and 2000, the city’s population dropped by 38 percent; the decline has just started to level off. In 1971, a federal judge ordered integration for Jefferson county’s schools. Many whites seceded from the county and established their own school districts. They are now some of the best in the country. In contrast, just one in five students in Birmingham City Schools are proficient in reading or math. Most qualify for free or cut-price lunches. Fewer than 2 percent are white.

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The New Public Gathering Rule By James Reed

     Here is an interesting article giving us a vision of the future, about three weeks’ time:
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-27/fled-new-york-for-sydney-my-coronavirus-warning/12092882

“I have a grim message for you from the future. About three weeks into the future, to be precise. My wife, our two daughters and I stepped off the plane in Los Angeles earlier this week as if emerging from a dream — or was it entering one? The reality we walked into seemed nothing like the one we had left in New York a few hours earlier. In our home neighbourhood in Brooklyn, friends had become strangers, and strangers had become threats. Our usual Sesame Street existence — in which a life of shared outdoor space turned every walk along the brownstones into a string of impromptu conversations with neighbours, crossing guards and shopkeepers — had descended into a lonely and menacing dash for essential supplies. People would cross the street as they saw you approaching. Regulars at our local cafe, when it was still open, would shout at others in line to keep their distance; parents in the park would usher their kids away from you with surgical-gloved hands. Everyone was a threat. Anyone could kill. After a string of cancellations and last minute re-bookings, we finally made it onto one of the last flights out — a hasty emigration brought forward by circumstance, all of our belongings left behind indefinitely. The plane was empty. When an airport worker at LAX started yelling at us to bunch closer together, two by two instead of single-file, I realised the coronavirus did not seem to represent the threat it did in Brooklyn. Fifteen hours later, as we disembarked in Sydney, it did not seem to exist at all. It's too late for New York, but not for Sydney. Like the background noise of an airplane safety demonstration, we were given vague instructions by quarantine officers to self-isolate for two weeks, handed a Department of Health fact sheet, then released into the wild. We stepped outside to be transported back in time, to New York three weeks ago. Schools and businesses were still open, beaches were packed (later that day Bondi closed and further shutdowns were announced), and people mingled — perhaps in denial of the new reality headed their way.”

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On Chaos; Words of Wisdom from India By Chris Knight

     With writers dealing with the theme of social chaos, to prepare readers for what might be coming, I found these words of wisdom, worth sharing here:
  https://tbsnews.net/thoughts/riots-happen-because-we-tend-romanticize-chaos-50536?

“Would most humans kill other humans if there were no punitive authority? That is a fascinating question, but inessential to the column for now, though it will be interesting to ask yourself what are the crimes you will commit if you are absolutely sure you will get away. What is relevant for the moment is the fact that just a handful of criminals, sadists and other deranged people are enough to create a riot. The rest can hug, it doesn't make a difference. The real reason why there are violent riots in India is in our romanticism of chaos. Chaos trains all Indians, from birth, to break rules on public property and to misunderstand that as democratic freedom. A nation born out of civil disobedience never had leaders of stature who deeply believed in civic order. It is the same chaos that lends a righteous edge to disruptive and illegal street agitations, and to a politician so disrespectful of the law that he had the courage to overtly threaten agitators that if they did not clear the way in three days, there would be violence. And it is the same chaos that creates an impotent police force.

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The State at the End of its Tether: Londonistan By Richard Miller

     London’s non-white mayor, Sadiq Khan, insisted that the crowed “tube” system posed no coronavirus risk, back on March 3 2020:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/29/coronavirus-sadiq-khan-insisted-crowded-tube-posed-no-risk-march-3rd/

    Today, Londonistan, knife crime capital of the UK, has its police searching for coronavirus hate crimes, the latest politically correct thing on the elite’s list:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/29/khans-london-police-ask-public-report-coronavirus-hate-crime/

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President Biden and the End of Life on Earth (Not Even a Tiny Lizard will Survive!) By Charles Taylor

     As my daughter just said to me when looking at my over-the-top headline, I don’t care Dad, at least I got out of doing my exams because of coronavirus. But, beyond that and economic collapse and all that we have on the horizon, this new threat, the Biden threat is set to devour everything, like a Hollywood monster movie from the 1950s:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8164871/Joe-Biden-takes-massive-25-point-lead-against-Donald-Trump-battleground-counties-Poll.html

“Joe Biden has taken a commanding 25-point lead in close counties where in 2016 Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were within 10 points of each other, a poll released Saturday revealed. The Fox News poll shows Biden ahead with 57 per cent support to Trump’s 32 per cent in close counties – defined by the poll as counties where Hillary Clinton and Trump were within 10 percentage points of each other in 2016. The former vice president also has a 49-40 per cent lead over Trump in the national head-to-head matchup, according to the first Fox poll taken after Biden became the assumed Democratic candidate. When looking at swing states overall – which were a considerable factor to Trump winning in 2016 – Biden’s lead shrinks to an eight-point margin. Although the primary election has been derailed due to the coronavirus outbreak this month, the last elections held March 17 cemented Biden’s position as the front-runner and presumed nominee after he won all three states participating – Arizona, Florida and Illinois. Bernie Sanders has still not dropped out of the race yet, even though it’s virtually impossible for him to best Biden at this point as he’s more than 300 delegates behind his establishment competitor. It is still unclear how the rest of the primary elections will pan out as the nation deals with adapting as several states have gone on lockdown and thousands have been diagnosed with coronavirus. The timing of this poll, taken March 21-24, is encouraging for Biden considering it was conducted during a time when Trump’s approval rating skyrocketed in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. This could be a signal that the rally behind Trump during this time might not translate to votes in November. Biden also has a massive boost in support, according to the poll, due to his pledge to choose a woman as his running mate – 63 per cent of voters approve of his promise.”

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Chinese Coronavirus a Disease of Civilisation By Chris Knight

     The coronavirus is a disease of globalisation, argues Yale University historian of pandemics, Frank Snowdon in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal, something which we here fully endorse, and have been in fact saying for some time. Globalisation, globalises disease, leading to civilizational breakdown:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/29/coronavirus-globalization-historian/
  http://archive.is/WJn3p

“The coronavirus is threatening “the economic and political sinews of globalization, and causing them to unravel to a certain degree,” Mr. Snowden says. He notes that “coronavirus is emphatically a disease of globalization.” The virus is striking hardest in cities that are “densely populated and linked by rapid air travel, by movements of tourists, of refugees, all kinds of businesspeople, all kinds of interlocking networks.” Respiratory viruses, Mr. Snowden says, tend to be socially indiscriminate in whom they infect. Yet because of its origins in the vectors of globalization, the coronavirus appears to have affected the elite in a high-profile way. From Tom Hanks to Boris Johnson, people who travel frequently or are in touch with travelers have been among the first to get infected. That has shaped the political response in the U.S., as the Democratic Party, centered in globalized cities, demands an intensive response. Liberal professionals may also be more likely to be able to work while isolated at home. Republican voters are less likely to live in dense areas with high numbers of infections and so far appear less receptive to dramatic countermeasures. … Coronavirus is far less lethal, but it does shatter assumptions about the resilience of the modern world. Mr. Snowden says that after World War II “there was real confidence that all infectious disease were going to be a thing of the past.” Chronic and hereditary diseases would remain, but “the infections, the contagions, the pandemics, would no longer exist because of science.” Since the 1990s—in particular the avian flu outbreak of 1997—experts have understood that “there are going to be many more epidemic diseases,” especially respiratory infections that jump from animals to humans. Nonetheless, the novel coronavirus caught the West flat-footed. It’s too early to say what political and economic imprint this pandemic will leave in its wake. As Mr. Snowden says, “there’s much more that isn’t known than is known.” Yet with a mix of intuition and luck, Renaissance Europeans often kept at bay a gruesome plague whose provenance and mechanisms they didn’t understand. Today science is capable of much more. But modernity has also left our societies vulnerable in ways 14th-century Venetians could never have imagined.”

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