Good piece in Rolling Stone on how COVID-19 could signal the end of America as we know it…..
Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but there’s plenty of food for thought in the article and there are certainly signs that it is losing its dominant position in the world (all this Tik-Tok, Huawei stuff has bugger all to do with security, it’s about US technology protectionism…).
Anyway, if the conclusion does come to fruition, would we miss America / what would be miss about America ?
That’s an astonishing piece of writing. Just this:
“How can the rest of the world expect America to lead on global threats — climate change, the extinction crisis, pandemics — when the country no longer has a sense of benign purpose, or collective well-being, even within its own national community? Flag-wrapped patriotism is no substitute for compassion; anger and hostility no match for love. Those who flock to beaches, bars, and political rallies, putting their fellow citizens at risk, are not exercising freedom; they are displaying, as one commentator has noted, the weakness of a people who lack both the stoicism to endure the pandemic and the fortitude to defeat it. Leading their charge is Donald Trump, a bone spur warrior, a liar and a fraud, a grotesque caricature of a strong man, with the backbone of a bully.”
But it’s not just the USA, of course. The UK, as ever, is limping along behind, with its own Mini-Trump, its own flag-waving Brexit yahoos. It’s not just the end of the USA as the global power, it’s the last farting fizzle of the UK as any kind of power at all.
Yes but it’s not just America and the UK either. The EU is lacking any decent leadership too. Merkel is a lame duck with reduced popularity in her own country and resurgent but thankfully still minority far right views becoming more prevalent. Macron flits from the cult of personality to caving in to protestors demands which only serves to embolden them. The rich Northern European nations baulk at helping our their impoverished Southern neighbours and anti European murmurings in Italy.
Hong Kong is falling apart and no viable policy exists that will make China change its stance – trade sanctions wont work because we are even dependent upon China for our medicine.
Another 4 years of Trump will completely break the relationship and the results of the November election have arguably never been as important to the wider World as they are now. I don’t think Trump is a natural war-monger but he is incapable of avoiding controversial decisions and sooner or later China or someone else is going to stand up to his chaotic decision making.
All of this with the background of the most serious pandemic we have faced for 100 yearsis a recipe that will affect all of us not just America.
So yes America as we know it is being challenged at home and abroad but so too the rest of us.
Thailand begs to differ. recently voted number one in a global survey of effectiveness in dealing with the pandemic (statistically almost invisible) but also the happiest nation in the world according to Bloomberg’s recent Misery Index.
So “rest of us”, at the moment, is not “all of us”. Things can change, of course, but there are much better places to live in the world than the UK and the USA right now.
I didn’t actually say all of us but yes you can read that I meant all of us. There are lots of places I would rather live than the UK right now but Thailand has had its share of problems in recent years too. I speak with a few people living in Thailand on a group chat and they don’t necessarily share your optimism although it is crystal clear Thailand handled Covid better than any country in the West – so too Taiwan and Vietnam.
The problem we all have is that the USA is still the dominant consumer economy and like it or not we are reliant on it for economic well being.
So spiritually we may be better off if America sees a sustained decline but economically we certainly wont be – at least in the short term.
I’m not optimistic, Steve, but I do think I’m fortunate to live here right now. The economy has been hit hard, and of course the country is is plagued with the same governance (and other) problems it’s always suffered from, but in terms of the pandemic, Thailand got it right. So far. Kudos.
Whither the new world order, tho’? A new dark ages? Which were anything but, as goths, visigoths, huns and vandals should assert.
Bring it on. Old Gods Arise! Forge thy dragon blade!
‘The Yurt’, Dripcock Lane, Bubo Spinney, Nether Snurtle.
2 nights per person: £500
Free Magick Pakoras included.
Excursion to The Thin Place.
En Suite Wicker Jacuzzi.
( In the interest of Pagan sensitivity we operate a No Born Again Christians Or Marxists policy. We do not want any of our guests being triggered nor the resultant spilling of blood).
Yes I read that on Fuckberk and commented there that it kinda applies to the UK but Saucy is right, it applies to many countries.
I think 8 years of a decent president could turn out around, someone with vision and the vigour to get it done. Oh.
I vote for Rob C.
– A yurt for everyone
– Homeopathic Covid cure
– Free Iron Maiden satin tour jacket
– State funded chakra re-alignment
– Zero tolerance tardigrade policy
You’re hired.
I’m in , especially for the satin tour jacket.
You’re hired too.
You might also want to read this, which takes the RS writer to task on a few things, notably his comments about Vancouver.
https://medium.com/@deannakaykreisel/the-unraveling-of-the-unraveling-of-america-db63ed82fa25
Yes, well. But in the end it’s just another bleat about harsh criticism of the USA, seeking to ameliorate it by pointing out that the author has the benefit of living in another hideously compromised society.
The USA may be in the shitter, heading for toastdom, as she has it, but so are many more of us out here; bickering about who’s worst among the privileged hardly helps change things.
Something that the UK and Canada have in common a “free” health service available to all. Whatever the faults in both countries, surely one of the main symbols of a civilised nation. God help anybody in the US who gets seriously ill and lacks health insurance.
And parts of Vancouver in the downtown area are seriously poor and dangerous. Only place I have been in Canada that made me feel truly scared.
Not entirely sure I fully agree with you – I love Canada and am a frequent visitor but have experienced a couple of unpleasant situations on Ste.Catherines in Montreal. Problems in Vancouver are mainly drug related? However UK cities are generally more menacing.
Agree that civilised countries should have a ‘free’ health service and one of the many downsides of UK leaving EU is we may well lose our E111 health card which was a great privilege.
Yeah parts of Montreal can be dodgy and there is gun crime in areas of that city and. particularly, Toronto. However in Vancouver the change in feeling in just a few blocks was shocking. I was in a difficult situation having lost my wallet (or it was stolen), I had no money, no credit cards etc and was trying to find a place where my ex could wire me some. I was near the train station and just walked into the downtown Eastside area. Just full of drunks and crackheads, I got out pretty quickly.
The Daily Telegraph today was bemoaning the loss of the E111 card and the impact it will have on travelling Brits. Let that sink in. The. Daily. Telegraph.
They were quite happy to promote Johnson’s cakeism philosophy – why should logic and reason have any place in the bilge they pump out?
When you live away from your homeland you do see better how much countries are alike and mostly not so exceptional. Those stories about crowding on beaches, seemingly ignoring the guidance on covid, exist here in Sweden also. In Norway the youth carry on the party on the streets after the bars close early. Mass cruising of vintage US cars, as is a custom here, has continued despite a ban. It’s not a weakness of the American people as claimed, it’s a fairly predictable rebellion of the young in the name of partying. Nothing new there.
This is a long, detailed account of how Trump has failed America on Covid 19. I’d love to see a similarly detailed description of the UK government’s management of the pandemic. In both countries, the dogma that private enterprise is best prevails, in the face of a virus that respects no boundaries and exploits health inequalities ruthlessly.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/trump-coronavirus-deaths-timeline.html
Germany has done quite well. As I understand it, only half of Germany’s hospital provision’ comes from the public sector. Dogmas can cut both ways.
And Putin sits and quietly waits.
While Xi is a busy boy taking over the world via technology.
Which also suits Putin because it pits the Trump administration against China.
Meanwhile Putin sits and quietly waits.
He’s not just sitting and quietly waiting, though. A poke of the fire here, a stir of the pot there..
Exactly. It’s all working out very nicely for him at the moment.
And via building new islands in the South China Sea
FWIIW, I thought it was an excellent article/story with plenty of food for thought.
Thanks for posting the articel, Chrisf. It is a very fine piece of writing.
Would I miss the US? I certainly would.
There is much that appals me, but a great deal that inspires me.
For example, a state like California is a world-leader in terms of ecological innovation, and the powers-that-be in many cites have made it clear they take green issues very seriously.
And once we get on to the arts music, cinema, tv, theatre,etc, there are a thousand reasons to like the US.
Then again, if I was offered a Gold-Plated Green Card tomorrow, I would turn it down on the spot and stay in Lingonberry Land.
I know which side my bread is buttered and which spread I like to have on my toast.
and which spread would that be? Marmite? Manuka Honey?
Kalle’s Kaviar of course, Cheshire.
It’s well written shite by a man from the Gladwell school of surface thought masquerading as deepness.
I thought it was going to end up like that when he said the Peasants’ Revolt marked the start of the end of the feudal systems. Bollocks. If there was anything that prompted that, it was the Black Death, and I’m not entirely sure he’s right on that point at all.
He’s mistaking the world’s reaction to Trump’s regime as the world’s reaction to America, and if he’s too fucking dumb to see the difference, he shouldn’t be writing this kind of piece.
Let’s see where he is, and where the world is, after 4 years of a Democrat presidency. Remember how the world looked on the USA during Bush II’s regime and how Obama changed that? Yeah.
… shite … surface thought masquerading as deepness … bollocks …too fucking dumb … shouldn’t be writing this kind of piece …
… he should be an AfterWorder.