COVID 19, THE CHARNEL HOUSE OF IDEOLOGIES

There is nothing like a pandemic to wreck all ideological fantasies. The Black Death did it to feudalism and Medieval Catholicism, what will it do to our ideologies? The right wing so dominant for the last forty years, is responsible for creating the conditions for the virus – the criminal insanity of exporting manufacturing to low wage countries, the destruction of the natural environment, the cut-backs to medical and social services, and the promotion of mindless mass tourism. (This goes for all parties, liberal and social democratic, which have drunk deeply from the neoliberal Cyanide Kool Aid) If this ideology withstands this viral onslaught, it will only do so as a result of the depth of human stupidity. Beyond doubt, we greens, anarchists and socialists come out looking good since we have consistently attacked this criminality and have proposed environmentally sane democratic alternatives. Close, but no cigar, as the cliche goes. About one third of the populace – most of whom are the right wing's base, I should add, pretend that the crisis isn't real. So they are at best sloppy when it comes to taking the necessary protective measures. That would be fine if they only infected themselves, but that is not the case. Let them do what they want and the pandemic is far worst. What answer does anyone have who believes in voluntarism? For our own sake we must force these goofs to comply. Where does that leave our anarchism? Humble I would say. Obviously – and this is effectively a definition of ideology – ideologies are at best only a PARTIAL answer to our problems.