This article originally referred to the Coronavirus Covid-19 as Chinese Flu, not as a political statement but as a geographic indication of origin. The text has been edited to reflect the WHO designation of Covid-19 and colloquial use of Coronavirus.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Western society – with a base reference to the European Union – was geometrically in an accelerated decline. The situation deteriorated in the last year with the destabilisation of and disobedience to the EU’s central authorities, which extended to several of the bloc’s members like Poland, Spain, Italy, not to mention the Brexit shock.
Germany, which for two decades has constituted the core element of European stability, entered into a destabilisation trajectory. New political forces are emerging in Germany that have been erroneously labelled as ‘far-right’ od ‘neo-Nazi’, which is misleading as most are even worse, they are anarchists.
Under such circumstances, the bloc continued to be apolitical and driven by civil servants.
One of the key elements that have yet to be assessed is the reason why the UK decided to leave Europe. Indeed, the Commission, the government of Europe, is driving crazy negotiations on endless financial matters and nobody is interested to find out why the Brits decided to exit Europe.
It is quite simple. The UK is the most democratic country in Europe and the Brits did not accept to be ruled by an administration that has powers and no accountability. That is why the United Kingdom left the bloc and that is why, if the EU somehow remains intact once this current crisis comes to an end and continues to carry on without realising that it has an opportunity to change, others will follow the UK’s exodus and sooner or later, the EU, as well as its single currency, will be memories.
In life, everything is politics. Whatever you say or do not say, is politics. Whatever you do or you do not do, is politics. The decline of the European Union is chiefly due to a lack of political handling of serious sociopolitical issues which for decades have been erroneously handled by linear-thinking civil servants. As a result, for years, major political problems such as migration, austerity, overregulation, unemployment, recession, and the like were given technocratic solutions that never addressed the core problems, only the symptoms.
The point of no return
Under the current circumstances, the situation has come at a point that change is unavoidable and if it does not occur in a centrally controlled and coordinated manner, it will come from a bottom-up and chaotic-type explosion that will include disastrous collateral damage.
The pandemic offers the one and only opportunity for the politically thinking leaders of the Western world to channel the unavoidable change that is coming and lead themselves, and the world, to the new normal by imposing a new model of life.
What the new normal will be remains to be seen and may vary from the best to the worse. The chief protagonists who will guide Western society to this new normal seem to be Donald Trump in the US and France under Emmanuel Macron.
The overall magnitude of the pandemic is rather difficult to assess as the issue appears to be partially medical and partially political. What seems likely is that as the situation evolves, hysterical citizens all over the Western world will be under “house arrest”, people will remain scared to death (the Western media is doing a superb job on both their digital and broadcast platforms) and continue to worry only about securing the medicines, disinfectants, and food that they think they need. They will accept everything.
When they walk out of their houses, however, they will discover that they live in a different world with new rules, new values, and maybe a different socio-political system. In this context, the vast majority of people, especially those suffering from austerity and whatever else goes with it, will realise that the new system for them can be perceived as better than the previous one.
They will thus positively accept the changes and with no reaction. Indeed, if they were not terrorised and in self-imposed isolation two meters one from to each other, they would be taking to the streets demonstrating, regardless of whether it is bad or good, until the new idea is revoked.
It remains to be seen whether perceptions will coincide with realities. This depends exclusively on those who will lead the change.
See the series of Coronavirus columns here.