Irrelevant Details, by Robert Gore | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC
Perhaps to prove that God has a sense of humor, albeit occasionally a black one, a virulent and deadly virus has effloresced in the heart of this supposedly controlled land and other than support the scientific response, the Chinese government hasn’t been able to do a damn thing about it. It’s origins are unclear, but the virus has escaped China and only time will tell how far it spreads and how many people it sickens or kills. You can read both apocalyptic and nothing-to-fear scenarios on the Internet and SLL has posted both.
The CoVid-19 coronavirus ushers in the new decade and beyond: large, ostensibly wealthy and powerful governments, defeated by aggregations of comparatively minuscule units that collectively work tectonic shifts. Another virus has broken out in China that’s received nowhere near the coverage of the coronavirus. A viral epidemic of souring debt threatens to overwhelm the Chinese financial system and spread beyond China’s borders.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
The CoVid-19 coronavirus ushers in the new decade and beyond: large, ostensibly wealthy and powerful governments, defeated by aggregations of comparatively minuscule units that collectively work tectonic shifts. Another virus has broken out in China that’s received nowhere near the coverage of the coronavirus. A viral epidemic of souring debt threatens to overwhelm the Chinese financial system and spread beyond China’s borders.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
Your description of China as, socialism with capitalist characteristics (Or is it capitalism with socialist characteristics?) certainly applies to places where we live.
As you say, central control is used to deal with fear. The fear is often generated by what you call the special class who exercise the control, invariably to benefit themselves. When things are going well, they slacken off.
There is a quote, I cannot remember from where, a bit optimistic maybe, that says-
They mean to govern well, to govern efficiently, and fairly, ..
but above all, they mean to govern.
How can this power be regained by individuals, I think the word is subsidiarity, sending decisions to the lowest possible level? Violence does not work for longer than a month, what is needed is philosophy. Objectivism needs a better hearing.
Many years ago I worked with a mathematician. He told us over lunch he been studying rigid systems. Systems could be set up to resist variation and failure. It always happened that all systems fail sometime, but while rigid systems may last a bit longer, they will fail and the failure will be catastrophic.
This may be obvious to engineers but applies to governments.
Consider the UK, there is no written constitution, peculiar things happen, a monarchy in the 21C is surely an anachronism, it changes but is always the same. Compare Russia, the rigidity of Tsarism failed, Lenin and Stalin created more rigidity, it looked inviolable but when it collapsed it was remarkably quick.
I myself suspect it does not merely measure up to the hype.
Every week at hospice, we get a weekly update on the flu statistics. There is always at the bottom of stats: Flu Like illnesses and the number is quite surprising. In other words, some people have all the symptoms of a flu but the doctors and labs cannot identify it, now that we are testing...it seems that we now know the identity of this unidentifiable flu is.
Listened to a report the other day and the interviewee said that it is probable that this beer flu has already spread around the world and we all have been exposed.
If true...it's not much of an epidemic now is it.
The Dems and the Reps still can't get together on the allocation of monies to stop the Covid19. If this continues we will be in bad shape like the rest of the world.