Andrew Coyne writes that modernity itself is now on trial:
The whole project of modernity, and of the nation-state that was its creation, was to relieve individuals and communities of certain risks, against which they had previously had to protect themselves. Cities are no longer ringed by walls that protect against marauding bands; nor are property owners obliged to cower behind stone fortifications, surrounded by moats. We move about with an ease and freedom from fear that would astonish all but the past few generations; exchange millions on a handshake; and so on, all the many ways in which we have been allowed, as it were, to let down our guard.
Until lately, the trend had been toward greater integration. Competition, itself intensified by integration, drives a relentless search for greater efficiency, in ways that imply ever tighter integration: just-in-time delivery, global supply chains, e-commerce. But with that tighter integration comes an increasing fragility. The more connected we become, the more productive; the more productive, the more dependent on those connections; the more dependent, the more vulnerable to their disruption.
In an increasingly integrated world, trust is the coin of the realm. And these days, trust -- the foundation of modernity -- is under attack:
One of the things in which we trust, for example, is that our dealings with others will not leave us killed or crippled by a communicable disease.
Until as late as the previous century, this would have been a dangerous bet. For most of human history, plagues of one kind or another were regular visitors, wiping out a third or more of their host populations, only to do the same or worse in succeeding centuries.
Over the last fifty years, the political right has been dedicated to destroying the institutions we established to promote trust. We have now reaped what we have sown.
Image: inc.com
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The whole project of modernity, and of the nation-state that was its creation, was to relieve individuals and communities of certain risks, against which they had previously had to protect themselves. Cities are no longer ringed by walls that protect against marauding bands; nor are property owners obliged to cower behind stone fortifications, surrounded by moats.
Nice rhetoric but what seems like a shaky sense of history. He could be describing the Ming Empire, Ancient Egypt under, say Ramses III or the Roman empire under Caesar Augustus.
Probably the only "modernity" we see is the neoliberal economic theories that affect much of the world which have contributed to , the political right destroying the institutions we established to promote trust.
Maggie Thatcher's there's no such thing as society seems to sum up the Right Wing's insanity.
It was precisely Maggie's tunnel vision which has helped led to this moment, jrk.
I think Coyne's central point is valid.
"A reservoir of trust – respect for leaders, belief in experts, faith in each other – can mobilize individual citizens to meet collective challenges. Countries that have it, such as Canada, may hope to minimize the pandemic’s impact. Countries in which it is in short supply, as is arguably now the case in the United States, may not."
America's is a society deeply riven along so many lines - political, economic, social, religion, ethnic - that trust is deeply frayed. That's not to say that social cohesion in Canada hasn't been in decline. It has. Just not to anything approaching the same degree as in the US.
For democracies around the world, Mound, what has happened in the United States is a cautionary tale.
Watch the rugged individualists become societal team members when they get scared of something. Just don't call them "socialists" no matter how much help they scream for. And trust them to be themselves once they get over it.
There are times, John, when there is no alternative to collective action.
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