Coronavirus, capitalism and the future
THE emergence of coronavirus disease (otherwise referred to as COVID-19) in late 2019 met a world unprepared for pandemic of a monumental proportion that will undermine all economic, social and political developments.
COVID-19 has shown to humanity that we are limited by the level of our understanding of nature. More than ever before, humanity is faced with an existential challenge from an infinitesimal organism.
But it may not be totally accurate to state that we are not aware of the possibility of invasive organism challenging our collective existence. Humanity has always faced the problem of organisms and animals intruding into our existence.
Indeed, in the last two decades, science and scientific discoveries, which have explored various transnational diseases like SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, H1N5 flu, among others, have shown that we are moving towards a health catastrophe unless we are able to restructure the way we live.
COVID-19 has also shown the failure of so-called technocracy of capitalism and the bankruptcy of its political class. In spite of huge scientific knowledge concerning infectious diseases, various capitalist strategists and the governments they serve all over the world were caught scampering for solution.
Health sector globally has been underfunded, and in many countries, handed over to the capitalist class. The pharmaceutical industry that should be complementary to science and health, is in the hand of few multinational companies and their financial sector controllers who are only interested in increasing their profit margin and showing good results to investors.
It is thus not accidental that many leaders, including those of the advanced countries like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, are resorting to voodoo theories that have exposed their banality. The inability of Western capitalist leaders to rally together and concertedly face the pandemic and the expected economic fallout early enough is a clear sign of this loss of idea.
