Still analyzing - The “end of the American Era” by Wade Davis
This is my third (and final - maybe) day looking at the linked article. The heading identifies the author as Dr. Wade Davis holds the Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. I read this last week (the main topic was “Anthropologist WadeDavis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era”
His premise is that American history set up both individualism and greed so that when the “bump in the road” known as COVID-19 hit, we (the United States) were unable to handle it. I will use more of his statements today.
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Dr. Davis starts with a recap of recent history.
“Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. In a single season, civilization has been brought low by a microscopic parasite 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. COVID-19 attacks our physical bodies, but also the cultural foundations of our lives.”
“Our interventions to date have largely focused on mitigating the rate of spread, flattening the curve of morbidity. There is no treatment at hand and no certainty of a vaccine on the near horizon. The fastest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. It took four years to develop. But, COVID-19 killed 167,000 Americans in five months. [Note, I updated his totals]. There is some evidence that natural infection may not imply immunity, leaving some to question how effective a vaccine will be, even assuming one can be found. And it must be safe. If the global population is to be immunized, lethal complications in just one person in a thousand would imply the death of millions.”
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So, the whole world has suffered under this virus. With regular air-travel and interaction between peoples, pretty much all people in the world have been exposed to COVID-19. (I can imagine some tribal villages in the rainforests of Indonesia not having cases).
We have tried to protect ourselves with hand-washing, isolation, and masks. Are we suppressing this mysterious virus? Not fully!!! Not yet!!!
Dr. Davis describes how plagues had disrupted history. The black plague killed close to half of Europe’s population - and with a shortage of workers - indirectly raised worker pay - and indirectly ended the feudal society.
He likens COVID-19 to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the stock market crash of 1929, and the rise of Hitler as “big-time game-changers”.
Dr. Davis goes on - writing about how American’s became enamored of work to the detriment of family and relationships.
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“The average American father spends less than 20 minutes a day in direct communication with his child. By the time a youth reaches 18, he or she will have spent fully two years watching television or staring at a laptop screen, contributing to an obesity epidemic that the Joint Chiefs have called a national security crisis.” and “Only half of Americans report having meaningful, face-to-face social interactions on a daily basis.”
“The promise of a good life for a working family is shattered as factories close and corporate leaders, growing wealthier by the day, ship jobs abroad, the social contract is irrevocably broken. For two generations, America has celebrated globalization with iconic intensity, when, as any working man or woman can see, it’s nothing more than capital on the prowl in search of ever-cheaper sources of labor.”
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Back in the 60s (or maybe 50s), we had the textile union saying “Look for the Union Label”. - But textile companies moved the jobs to China, to Bangladesh, to Indonesia, and even to Vietnam - to get cheap labor. We sometimes complained about child labor laws in those countries (as we put on clothes made cheaply abroad).
When Detroit (aka “car makers”) started to make ‘lemons’, we found we could get good cars from Japan (and later Korea) - and even with importing the cars, they were frequently cheaper and of more value than American cars.
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He continues:
“ Fully a fifth of American households have zero or negative net worth, a figure that rises to 37 percent for black families. The median wealth of black households is a tenth that of whites. The vast majority of Americans — white, black, and brown — are two paychecks removed from bankruptcy. Though living in a nation that celebrates itself as the wealthiest in history, most Americans live on a high wire, with no safety net to brace a fall.”
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NOTE - these are his word - not mine
“COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease or even toilet paper!!. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand.” (Again Dr. Davis’ words - if you read more of this article, he is very negative on the President of the United States).
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And, black workers were laid off. The two paychecks from bankruptcy were very real to them. Then comes a minor police crisis where a policeman seemingly suffocated George Floyd (“I can’t breath”). So, out-of-work black Americans took to the streets and Black Lives Matter was the slogan. If I was out of work, with no pay, can’t pay my rent, can’t feed my children, I would be very frustrated!! What is the government going to do with me for breaking store windows and looting? Maybe they can put me in jail - where I’ll have a bed and food to eat!!! Maybe my wife and children can go to jail too - after-all, we are being thrown out of their housing.
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I “need” to finish this. It is a political statement but based on history. It might be that President Trump was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It might have been that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have solved the COVID-19 problem.
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A final quote from Dr. Davis:
“Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the lifeblood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children; in the past decade alone 346 American students and teachers have been shot on school grounds.”
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Is Dr. Davis correct? Have we lost our way? Read his article closely (I did not look at the bottom where he compares our social services to other countries). Blacks, immigrants, poor people have (by his estimation) fallen through the cracks.
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There was a hymn in the 1970s - from II Chronicles 7:14 (God speaking to King Solomon after dedicating the temple):
If My people who are
Called by My name
Will humble themselves
Humble themselves and pray (2x)
And seek My face
Seek My face
And turn from
Their wicked ways
Then will I hear from heaven
And will forgive their sin
And will heal their land
Heal their land
Can we turn from our wicked ways? (And, what might be our wicked ways? Dr. Davis might suggest that greed and self-importance are at the top of the list).
Can we seek God?
Love does win - can we love one another again? Can we forgive and heal our land?
Hugs!!
I love you all
LOVE WINS!!!
Karen
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