Sunday 5 April 2020

medical advice from an orange gameshow host

While it is probably naive to think that there might be elections in the US in November and that America is any semblance of a functioning democracy by the time that this health crisis subsides, it is still crucial—no matter what polity we belong to—to hold those charged with looking out for our interest and safety to account rather than seek to blame and beggar our neighbours for not being as standoffish and hygienic as was directed by governments that failed to act, both in good faith and with unmitigated malice.
Just like with the institutional polluters whose lobbying money curtails real and effective environmental regulation and puts the onus of responsibility on the consumer and lifestyle choices, governments’ inability to act swiftly and decisively to stop the spread—and these were and going forward are tough choices that no one wants to be making, those authorities are hoping we will start accusing one another and cede more power to incumbency to operate with little to no oversight, even when actions on the part of leaders are nothing other than rank hypocrisy to be excused and forgotten. The same tacticians that stoked fears of insecurity based on migration and foreigners coming in and taking our jobs rather than the naked precarity of the situation are realising that stance is backfiring with not enough labour to keep the farms and medical facilities running, much less transportation and supermarkets, hailing the once demonised and marginalised workforce as heroes—though failing to acknowledge that at the same time many are hostages as well. We cannot forget or forgive the profiteering of a few legislators whom undersold the market ahead of the revelation of how bad a hit the world economy was facing. We must spare a thought for those who sounded the alarms and are being silenced and sidelined and the retroactive purging of those who had tried to proactively prevent America from going down this path in the first place, retaining some sense of accountability, and shuddering to imagine what might lay in store.