Some thoughts on the COVID-19 crisis

(Also available as a video here.)

By now it should be very clear: this new coronavirus is not a more deadly virus than the flu viruses that we experience year after year. The numbers speak for themselves, the mortality rates are roughly the same, yet our governments are imposing totally irrational and disproportionate measures on us, and we just put up with it. Our leaders have collectively lost the plot, and we are following them like good little lambs into the abyss.

If we are at war, it is a war waged by our own governments against us, the people. The measures they have taken cause immense and immeasurable damage to society, not just economically. Our democratic rights and freedoms have been suspended and are at risk.

How did this mass hysteria come about? The public and private mainstream media have been engaging in fear mongering and have given no voice to other voices who have legitimate alternative views. It looks like some kind of deal between governments and the media.

Now that more and more international voices who are critical of the draconian measures emerge via the internet and alternative media channels, these are actively suppressed, slandered, ridiculed, censored. What is democratic about this?

Politicians have demonstrated that they have no knowledge of human nature. Politicians around the world have failed miserably, and the media, which in a functioning democracy should actually have a watchdog role and expose political misconduct, they have failed just as miserably. And so we now live in authoritarian states.

Those in power now know for sure that the people are easier to manipulate than they might have thought. You can pretty much do what you want with the people, and you don’t even have to use force. You just have to create fear and panic. These are classic propaganda methods to which we are now subject.

But the longer this state of affairs lasts, the more tensions will boil over throughout societies. The panic purchases have already shown that. So nobody should be surprised if violence increases, if psychological suffering such as depression increases exponentially, if the divorce rates rise rapidly, if the suicide rates explode. The financial support measures do not help there, they are little thought through bandaid solutions anyway.

One might well hope that after this crisis is over a more humane society and economy rises like Phoenix from the ashes. I’m not so optimistic. We cannot assume that something better can emerge from this inhumane treatment we are being subjected to now.

Even though this crisis has shown just how irrational and unsuitable the neoliberal capitalist economy is, how dangerous the fixation on globalization was, the ruling forces behind all this will not relinquish anything. It is not them who have to pay for the consequences of this crisis anyway.

Right from the start, I suspected that this crisis was deliberately brought about, or at least a welcome opportunity to start a new cycle, because it had been clear for a very long time that the economy, which is based on an ever-increasing mountain of debt, could not be sustained indefinitely. So perhaps this is just some kind of reset, and then the whole circus starts all over again.

However, the restrictive, anti-democratic measures that are now in place will be maintained wherever possible, they will infect our societies through this crisis and will be accepted by the people who apparently put up with anything.

If our free and democratic society is worth anything to us, we must now demand sensible measures from politicians, first of all to protect the approximately 5% of the population who are actually in need of protection and to immediately remove the current destructive measures. But it is also about preserving and protecting our democratic civil rights.

What would be such sensible measures? Below just a few, but I’m sure there are more:

  • A broad global campaign to promote general hygiene; Progress has already been made in this regard, but must be expanded. That would be a good role for the WHO, instead of it being the extended arm of the big pharmaceutical companies.
  • (Self) isolation and close medical care for people who are actually at risk, which would not overload most health systems.
  • State-subsidized provision of protective measures for people at risk.

Finally, a few high quality resources that are not prescribed by your government:


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