The Ongoing Panic
2nd March 2021
In parts of the US and Europe, Covid has turned into a weird religion. It is not just a public health issue to be managed and navigated, but a stand-in for Old Scratch. The faithful are not only vigilant, they are Covid vigilantes, minding everyone’s business about it.
One of the core characteristics of proglodytes is their affection for technocracy. ‘Forget politics! Just let the experts run things!’ You can see this in the news as the neo-fascists in our Ruling Establishment clutch The Science to themselves like a security blanket. If The Experts were always correct, this might be a persuasive argument. Unfortunately, one age’s Science is another’s Mythology — just look at the history of the government’s Food Pyramid for a particularly blatant example. And — I’m shocked, shocked — it turns out that the Experts can have a political agenda the same as anybody else (the one’s who aren’t outright Sucking Up To Power). So that brings politics right back in. (Turns out that The Science can be played like a guitar depending on whom you listen to and whom you don’t. Isn’t that amazing.)
Political theater is an essential element of liberal democracy. We live in the modern version of a Dionysian age. All public acts are public performances, and all public performances are part of the larger morality play of politics. Facts and the discourse upon facts is purely a private affair. It is why everything about Covid has been politicized and only came to our attention when it could be politicized. For a year we have been watching Covid theater, rather than a public health response.