COVID 9-11: The New Year Of The Plague

 

"The response to the COVID-19 pandemic launched the largest human experiment in world history. At the moment of writing these lines, over a third of the global human population is forced into confinement. Furthermore, the global economy came to a screeching halt as several governments ordered the closing of all non-essential businesses. Never in world history have we seen such sweeping and far-reaching measures that affect each individual at such a profound level. In a matter of weeks, the ability of billions to move around freely and to earn a livelihood completely vanished." - Charles Eisenstein

Author's note:  With the entire world in the grip of COVID hysteria while 'business as usual' continues unabated behind the scenes, it seems a matter of urgency that we interrogate and try to contextualise current events, even if it means ignoring the many known unknowns. What follows therefore is a purely speculative analysis - a wild guess at what the current historical moment might mean.

I have (rightly) been accused of wobbling all over the place on this topic. I confess to being as terrified as anyone else by this new pandemic, for various reasons, some personal and health related. But rather than succumbing to the confusion of the moment, far better to take a calmer approach and look back at the events which have brought us to here, the lessons already learned, and some of the conclusions already drawn.

In previous writings I have suggested that the most instructive lens through which to view the present state of geopolitics might be not one of great power conflict, nor the left-right political spectrum, but rather economic nationalism vs globalism. In this struggle of ideas figures like Trump, Putin, Johnson/Farage, Le Pen, Salvini, and Orban represent an emerging paradigm which challenges the liberal-monetarist-globalist status quo of the last five decades. This new paradigm promises on its face neither a return to industrial Fordism, nor any significant improvement in the material conditions of the working class, but at least pays lip service to the sovereignty of nation states and the possibility of a more stable geopolitics through a re-balancing of economic and military power.

This should in no way be construed as an end to "US imperialism" - a label which I've previously branded a misnomer. The US in its present state is little more than a shell company for global finance capital. If it manages to come out of the current upheaval without being torn apart, we may indeed see the emergence of a US empire, but one which will merely be the master of its own limited sphere of influence, rather than capital's global enforcer.

The likelihood of this outcome is one I wouldn't like to lay odds on. As I see it, it is anyone's game at this point. I merely wish to put forward a suggestion of what this game might look like when viewed from above, not through the window of commies vs fascists (they are all fascists in my opinion) nor good guys vs bad guys (they are all bad guys), but rather as a play-off between two grand narratives; a competition which has the potential to shape the course of human civilisation for decades to come.

The New Plague.

Unlike some alt-media pundits, I reject the idea that COVID19 is 'just the flu' and that it is being blown out of all proportion for political purposes. Here I defer to elementary logic - specifically the law (or fallacy) of the excluded middle. Sometimes the only option isn't either/or. Sometimes we are presented with a false choice. Perhaps this pandemic is only likely to affect 1% of us directly. Perhaps 0.1%. But one need only look at the figures coming out of Italy to get a feel for the seriousness of the situation (more than 10 000 reported deaths so far.) Or the desperate pleas of front line medical workers. Or the tent hospitals now popping up in Central Park, New York. Or for the more politically jaded, the way countries like Iran and Venezuela are responding to the pandemic. These are what I consider to be among the few remaining legitimate, sovereign states and I tend to trust their policies and their messaging. The fact that they take the threat seriously suggests to me that that COVID-19 is indeed a serious threat. It is simultaneously the biggest deception in history. These two propositions are not mutually exclusive.

Despite relatively few reported cases at the time of writing, Australia has taken the unprecedented measure of suspending its parliament for 5 months. A COVID-19 commission has been set up to run the country during the shutdown, comprising captains of industry and representatives from the mining sector, with not a single scientist or medical professional in sight. One member of the commission is Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, who may hold the record for the largest number of search warrants, surveillance devices and computer access warrants issued by a single bureaucrat. Meanwhile the whole population is under house arrest, while small businesses have been shut down, comprising 50% of the economy. This is anything but business as usual.

Needless to say, you don't fight a virus by quarantining a healthy population. You fight it by quarantining the sick. The whole business of flattening the curve to ensure the health system is not overrun is a cynical numbers game which will ultimately lead to more infections and a higher mortality rate. Destroying the economy will definitely lead to more deaths as people face the dire consequences of declining living standards: poverty, homelessness and exposure. How many will lose their jobs, their businesses and their homes? And who stands to profit from it?

This is an unprecedented power grab, and comes at a time when the current economic order, unable to sustain the falling rate of profit and collapse in the price of fixed and variable capital, has dropped its mask to show its true face - the face of fascism. Across the world we see post-war institutions and practices coming under direct fire, as the facade of liberal democracy is pushed aside and replaced with totalitarianism. Armies are now on the streets enforcing lockdowns. gatherings of more than two are prohibited while strict 'social distancing' laws are enforced. As Raymond Evans writes, we seem to be living simultaneously in 1919, 1929, and 1939. And yet what is completely surreal is that people are going along with it like sheep, singing from their balconies, 'spontaneously' applauding health workers while wishing the clap on Boris Johnson, or something like that. 

Of course the powers that be are not a monolith. There are many strategies being played out, serving many interests, but when we turn to the question of cui bono, one wonders whether COVID-19 might have been engineered - in a lab or otherwise - in a typically Orwellian fashion, not as a virus, but rather as a vaccine against the virus of populism; a final, desperate effort to turn back the tide of economic nationalism which has been rising over the last 4 years. Given that the WHO receives a large portion of its funding through the philanthropic foundations of Bill Gates and George Soros, it is not unthinkable that its resources might be deployed to serve the globalists cause. Meanwhile phrases like New World Order and One World Government, last week dismissed as boomer memes and conspiracy theories, make their way by stealth into the public discourse, like a turret clock that strikes once in a generation.

I've never really placed much importance on the machinations of US electoral politics. I'm still unsure whether Trump is anything more than a nuisance to the neoliberal/technocratic 'deep state' apparatus and its agenda. A month ago it seemed a sure thing that he would win re-election in November. Now, amid all the chaos and confusion they seem to have thrown us yet another curve ball. New York governor Chris Cuomo is a neoliberal con artist whose record on public health should raise red flags everywhere. He has appeared seemingly out of nowhere and is being hailed as the new messiah, calling on the national guard to "kick coronavirus ass" even as he tries to block a $6.7bn saving in public health funding which comes on the condition that states make no cuts to Medicaid. Obviously the Democrats were never serious about running an ailing, geriatric, mentally impaired candidate against Trump. Will this late runner sweep up the nomination? At the time of writing there are doubts as to whether the November election will even go ahead. Especially with conventions likely being cancelled as required by new 'social distancing' protocols.

Dr Paul Craig Roberts predicted in October that if impeachment failed the elites would use a nuclear option against Trump, that is, the FED would deliberately crash the markets creating a recession which could be blamed on Trump's mismanagement of the economy. This would be a last resort and Wall Street would likely be bailed out by any means necessary, but everything else; pension funds, hedge funds, mutual funds, would be wiped out completely. Having failed at impeachment, with the EU falling apart and Macron losing his grip on power, have the globalists decided to use their doomsday weapon? Some more observant social media types noted at the outset of the hysteria that the COVID pandemonium is a convenient smokescreen for the economic collapse we are now seeing. "Coronavirus job losses could total 47 million" read the headlines across several media outlets today. 47 million lives destroyed. A small price to pay to remove a stubborn obstacle on the path to world domination.

It seems that the world is once again at war, but not with an invisible enemy, as some would have us believe. Whatever the outcome of this war, a return to the way things were seems unlikely at this point. Totalitarianism is becoming the new normal, and many of its features are likely to become permanent even once the threat of infection has passed. Besides, what about next year's pandemic? Or the following year's? Already Germany is talking about issuing certificates to those with positive antibodies so they can return to work. Presumably we can expect mandatory vaccinations, micro-chipping, and god knows what other authoritarian controls our techno-feudalist silicon valley overlords decide to impose on us.

And what might the future hold should the nationalists succeed? Failing the restoration of our democratic rights by benevolent decree, I'm afraid I don't see a particularly bright future there either.