Is COVID the only immediate threat to mankind?

 

Above is the culprit and it is doing a real job on human civilization.  People die and people are wounded and economies crater.  One would think we were at war.  Of course, in a very real sense we are.

But, the war is not just with Covid-19, the illness contracted from SARS-COV-2.  No, the war is with ourselves and the Covid crisis has simply pushed it to the fore.  And all of us see this war from our own cultural perspectives, for our own civilization surrounding us is what must serve us to emerge intact on the other side of the problem.  Being American, I will reflect upon the problem(s) from an American perspective.

When traveling for the first time in Europe and later in New Zealand, I was naively surprised to find so much of the news coverage in countries visited was news of America.  Our world footprint of the time was vastly greater than I expected.  Along with the news was a great deal of popular myths surrounding that media presence, for in Europe, we were viewed often with a wary disdain before even knowing us.  In New Zealand we were viewed with a level of awe that was not warranted living the American experience on the streets.  Both believed us vastly wealthy beyond any of our real experience and also that what America said must be considered because of our world power.  We were loved and we were hated, but as has been said in the new age of Trump, for the first time as a nation we are pitied.  For the first time, people see how fragile and insubstantial some of those myths were.

And neither tells the story, not quite.  The first thing that people around the world often miss is the fact that we, as a people, are really you.  We are collected from all cultures, people self-selecting - unless brought in slavery or being of an indigenous population treated most badly - to pursue the American dream.  We are all at our roots, transplants from Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, the South Seas, and on and on.  We are, at our base, a people formed around an idea, noble in many aspects, incredibly ignoble in many others, for the nobility was not actually applied to all.  In fact, the finest recipients of the "American dream" were white men.

Nobility enshrined in the Constitution next to disgrace (slavery and genocide) coupled with sexism and intolerance of harmless differences (homosexuality, mixed marriage, etc.) could never stand the test of time.  It was destined to be changed, either by the evolution, revolution or negotiation of a prior post, or it was destined to collapse.  Regardless of the process, people with vested interests will resist changes away from any unfair advantage that benefits them.  And, we have evolved a class of oligarchs that are resisting necessary change mightily.

Last night, I watched Fox News to see what the response would be to the Vice Presidential candidacy selection of Kamala Harris, a woman born of immigrants quite successful in their own pursuit of the American dream.  Her Jamaican father was a professor at Stanford University and her Indian mother was a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.  Kamala is local and we have watched her ascension for many years, but lets be clear about something: this is not a person that will be rolled over by anyone.  She is a former District Attorney, California Attorney General, and a California Senator.  She is known in Washington for her ability to debate and to question those in positions of power.  Fox News almost did not mention her.

Instead, I was appalled to find their coverage framed - literally framed with the caption on the screen - that the Radical Left has declared war on America!  The rhetoric was ceaselessly incendiary.  And this is the station with the highest viewership in America, so this is significant.  The war they defined was against Donald Trump and against what they view as the underpinnings of civilization itself.  It was a declared resistance to other media outlets.  They simply haven't decided how to characterize Kamala Harris as a warrior for the enemy just yet.

It is also important to realize that the Democrats and Joe Biden in selecting Harris were putting themselves on battle footing.  Both sides know this is going to be a very nasty next three months politically and they are preparing their footing and their battle plans.  The Democrats are championing multiracial, multi-gender, multi-class and multiethnic rights and making the statement that America must change.  The Republicans are championing traditions of Evangelical Protestant Christian values, the belief that the wealthy are justly wealthy and that they provide the sustenance and paths for the aspiring masses, that white men have always led that charge into the future that replicates a past that has always worked.  Their biggest problem, which they vigorously avoid portraying, is that their "leader" is not conservative as much as he is mentally unhealthy and actually totally inept.

So, into this inevitable collision of visions and values of this nation came the Covid crisis.  People have become more and more agitated day-by-day, month-by-month and the cultural middle has evaporated as battle lines have been drawn.  The battles in a nation like Syria are tragic, but when I traveled to other nations, Syria did not dominate the news.  The battles in Ireland during "the Troubles" did have a large news presence, but not a large threat beyond Irish borders.  But, troubles in America threaten to not remain contained within our borders and seldom have.  We are frighteningly armed militarily.  And we react aggressively to a feeling of impotence or threat.

The Covid crisis has shown such impotence from the top of our government that we have become a laughing stock (to the extent that any of this is funny) and that has not gone down well with this administration.  Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democrats are leading in the polls right now and there is a growing fear that this President is trying, right before our eyes, to steal another term, to hamper voting as much as possible.  There is even concern that if he does lose he will refuse to leave office!  

But I have another concern.  The Covid display of American impotence is perhaps its most dangerous aspect to our people. Presidents have rallied support behind themselves with wars against foreign enemies before to show potency and power.  If you can't beat the Democrats, if you can't beat Covid, who can you beat and turn all this around?  I worry that someone outside our borders might become an enemy that we decide needs to feel America's might.  And THAT is a threat to mankind!

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Raju at their blogs, Padmum, Raju, Ramana, Sanjana and Shackman!