Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Pandemic Inspired Changes May Become Permanent
The Covid-19 outbreak is having an immediate effect on politics around the world. Elections are delayed, strangebed fellows made and some leaders are pretending all is well. It is hackneyed to say that the only constant is change, but the alterations to the world's politics are immediate and long lasting. What is particularly interesting are the structural changes that the disease is forcing upon poltiical leaders.
Voting today is not much different from the voting of the ancient Greeks. Personal attendance at the polling booth is still de riguer. And personal attendance in groups is not a good idea these days. The result is the delay of elections from the New York State Primary to the Russian referendum on changing the number of terms a president can hold (acutally a resetting of the clock to allow Mr. Putin's next term to count as a first term).
Delaying elections is not something that anyone of democratic instincts can accept easily. The American Civil War was being fought while Abraham Lincoln ran for and won his second term as president. Elections throughout the democratic world went ahead as planned throughout both world wars.
This is different, however, because the congregation of individuals that is the hallmark of traditional voting is the problem. It must be replaced if elections are to move ahead. And once that is gone, its departure should be permanent if only because there will be another disease outbreak again in the next couple of decades (one hopes no sooner). Postal ballots are ideal because they provide a paper trail that will enhance security in ways that computer-based voting has yet to equal (and it may not be able to do so ever.).
In addition, the political ideologies of the past appear to be incapable (mostly on the right) of addressing the problems caused with the outbreak. The free market is not capable of getting people to stay at home, close businesses and provide the income relief needed to keep the economy moving during such a lockdown. The GOP in the US and the Tories in the UK have more or less moved back into the business of providing government support to sectors of the economy that need it. How they do it and who benefits most is a separate issue. Sink or swim is gone. Deficit hawks are almost extinct.
The final change that may be coming is the relationship between the individual and the state. The rugged individualism of America looks great in a Marlboro cigarette ad, and every successful person would like to think they did it all by themselves. Yet the nations that have managed this mess the best are those where the individual acts for the common good. One can argue that the PRC is excessive in its oppression of the Chinese people, but the democratic ideals of South Korea and its Confuscian cultural values made doing what was necessary something people voluntarily did. America in particular, and individualistic societies in the west in general may rediscover their national unity.
Maybe none of this will come to pass permanently, but the likelihood of going back to the way things were this time last year is the longest of long shots.
© Copyright 2020 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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