It's a lousy mess and what makes it worse is that a large proportion of the deaths was probably avoidable, unfortunately in the USA and to some extent in the UK your leaders are pathetic and set a rotten example. So far there appears to be no sign of improvement, and in the USA in particular they seem to be quite unable to learn from what they are experiencing and it's obvious that with Trump in charge nothing's going to change. Could be that Trump will be gone before the virus is eliminated.
Here we have another spike originating in Melbourne, turns out that travellers isolated for two weeks in hotels with guards supplied by security firms being in short supply and some firms hiring labour off the street with no knowledge of the proper job resulting in a real bogup, at times with some of the guards playing about with the occupants. And then the odd person proceeding to NSW and spreading it even further. And that's how it is here at the moment, even with the Govt working hard, much harder than some.
And the knowledge that younger people are now dying from it makes it even harder for old fogies with large families.
Life used to be so much simpler.
If they were just pathetic, as in incompetent, I could actually live with it a little easier.
But this is far more sinister. If you look at the countries that have done badly they have politics in common. This crisis is political.
Thanks to the rise of popularism, we have been subjected to years of anti-establishment rhetoric. We need an establishment! What Trump, Bannan, Johnson, Gove, Cummings, JC21, etc have done is to sew seeds of distrust in the establishment. Much of it has been based on lies.
The establishment we need, in this case, is reputable and trustworthy government, a trusted police force enforcing the law without prejudice and with the consent of
all, a trusted scientific community, a trusted judiciary, a trusted and impartial news media (or at least partial more or less equally to both sides), a trusted civil service, trust in international agreements, trust in the fairness of elections and referenda, trust in healthcare, trust in the protection of our rights and the environment. Each of those had been undermined.
Society cannot be administrated by us lowly individuals on an individual basis. A successful society requires putting our trust in institutions that collectively you could call the establishment. Nobody believes for one moment that it is, will be, or ever has been, anywhere close to perfect in any society that has ever existed but modern society can only function when the establishment functions to some degree.
Now the liars are in charge, voted in by people who knew perfectly well that they were liars but had drunk enough koolaid about the EU and Corbyn not to care. As though they thought we were under attack from Brussels, foreigners in general and a red under the bed, and thought we needed to do what had to be done no matter how unpleasant. Many probably preferred the optimism that Johnson and Trump exude like intoxicating mucus over the reality of our issues. Some voted through fear; some voted for hope. Twas ever thus.
Pope may bring up better examples but I think we have the most untrusted and untrustworthy system we have ever had.
Where does this end? How can any progress be made on climate change under this diabolical regime?