Tuesday, 19 May 2020
So many signals
The coronavirus debacle has thrown a large number of bright red warning signals at us, far more than any government would wish to have on show all at once, but the speed of the pandemic seems to have pushed many governments onto the back foot.
Boris could not have done much about it initially, as policy was severely constrained by the advice he received, the power of the media and lockdown narrative. As ever the BBC was never likely to contribute anything useful to assist and promote a more pragmatic UK government response.
Now we know how easily a police state may be imposed, how unreliable government experts are, how unreliable the mainstream media are, how easy it is to recruit informal police state agents and informers, how easy it is to induce righteous sentimental compliance, how idle people can be when incentives are suspended, how desperately unrewarding many jobs are anyway, how much of what we do is not worth doing, how distorted our view of essential services has become, how complacent and comfortable the public sector has become…
We’ve seen all the signals before, but all together in one giant scintillating blast of obviousness – we haven’t seen that before.
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4 comments:
I think the problem will be that the usual suspects will look at the obvious signals and come to the usual wrong conclusions. Sadiq Khan is already rejoicing at reduced levels of pollution in London, and bringing in more cycling lanes and a hike in the congestion charge. Meanwhile businesses are dying on his patch. The BBC is bewailing the rise in CO2 caused by the partial lifting of restrictions. The Church Times (essentially The Guardian in a dog-collar) is saying how the virus means we ought to be more attentive to the needs of ethnic minorities.
My guess is that people will continue to spin fantasies until such time as the hard economic reality hits. With fewer people working, services will be trashed and inflation will climb like in the '70s. That will trigger most people's inner capitalist.
What's remarkable about this episode is how (apart from panic-buying) we still manage to get stuff made, bought, and distributed. I wonder if we are entering an era where being a delivery driver will be a sought-after unionised elite job, and the rest of us will essentially be pensioners. Maybe we will be paid to stay at home and not make a fuss, making a bit of cash (but this time unavoidably taxed!) on the internet and worrying about how much stuff costs.
One other thing the virus has exposed, is that despite life expectancy having risen significantly over the last 40 years, much of that has been won at the expense of leaving a large proportion of the population suffering from chronic ill health, and thus vulnerable to a virus such as CV-19. Its not that we are living increasingly long healthy lives, its that medical science can keep us alive, just.
Also that even in the the below pension age ranges, significant amounts of ill health exists, mainly obesity and type 2 diabetes, which can be cruelly exposed by CV-19. The latter maybe to some extent promoted by the incentives created by ability of medical science to prevent death - if being overweight in middle age was a sure fire way to an early grave (as it used to be say 50 years ago) then more people might try harder to avoid it. Whereas if you know that medical science can give you a stent, or a heart bypass, a pharmacy of pills, and keep you alive despite decades of eating the wrong things and lack of exercise, they why bother to watch your diet or take plenty of exercise?
A. K. Haart,
A short piece that says absolutely everything.
Sam - yes you are right - the usual suspects will look at the obvious signals and come to the usual wrong conclusions. There appears to be a concerted effort to enforce the wrong conclusions as a very widespread political policy. As if there is a powerful elite conviction that we must be made to believe things which are not in our interests to believe.
Sobers - I agree, we do know that medical science can give us a stent, or a heart bypass, or a pharmacy of pills and it does seem to suck personal responsibility away from a huge number of people. Not having to pay for it or insure against it may contribute to the problem too.
Mac - thanks. Grim though isn't it?
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