Wikipedia now has a page collating examples from more than 35 countries of “xenophobia and racism related to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic”: they range from taunts to outright assault. In 1858, a mob in New York City broke into a quarantine hospital for immigrants on Staten Island, demanded that everyone leave and then burned the hospital down, fearful that it was putting people outside at risk of yellow fever. When the Black Death came to Europe in the 14th century, cities and towns shut themselves to outsiders – and assaulted, banished and killed “undesirable” community members, most often Jews. People who study disasters – and especially pandemics – know all too well their tendency to inflame xenophobia and racial scapegoating. T he pessimistic view is that a crisis makes bad things worse. Only in hindsight will the contours of the new world we’re entering become clear. Every disaster is different, of course, and it’s never just one or the other: loss and gain always coexist. Others are more optimistic, framing crises not just in terms of what is lost but also what might be gained. Some thinkers who study disasters focus more on all that might go wrong. Through the hole that opens up, we glimpse possibilities of other worlds. They also rip open the fabric of normality.
#Just how fast the night changes free#
Prisoners in New York state are getting paid less than a dollar per hour to bottle hand sanitiser that they themselves are not allowed to use (because it contains alcohol), in a prison where they are not given free soap, but must buy it in an on-site shop.īut disasters and emergencies do not just throw light on the world as it is. There have been reports of French police fining homeless people for being outside during the lockdown. Airlines are flying large numbers of empty or near- empty flights for the sole purpose of protecting their slots on prime sky routes. In recent weeks, the news has furnished us with countless examples. In such moments, whatever is broken in society gets revealed for just how broken it is, often in the form of haunting little images or stories. This work – what we might call the field of “crisis studies” – charts how, whenever crisis visits a given community, the fundamental reality of that community is laid bare. (As I write this, the US military’s current attempt at reducing its troop presence in Afghanistan, 19 years after the invasion, is being slowed by coronavirus-related complications.) Another recent crisis, the 2008 financial crash, was resolved in a way that meant banks and financial institutions were restored to pre-crash normality, at great public cost, while government spending on public services across the world was slashed.īecause crises shape history, there are hundreds of thinkers who have devoted their lives to studying how they unfold. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, government surveillance of citizens exploded, while George W Bush launched new wars that stretched into indefinite occupations. The twinned crises of the Great Depression and the second world war set the stage for the modern welfare state.īut crises can also send societies down darker paths. The global flu epidemic of 1918 helped create national health services in many European countries. Any glance at history reveals that crises and disasters have continually set the stage for change, often for the better. It’s the fact that we have grown accustomed to hearing that democracies are incapable of making big moves like this quickly, or at all. It’s not just the size and speed of what is happening that’s dizzying. Would you have believed what you were hearing? Large swathes of the world will be collaborating – with various degrees of coercion and nudging – on a shared project of keeping at least two metres between each other whenever possible. Experiments will be underway in the direct government provision of basic income. In certain places, landlords will not be collecting rent, or banks collecting mortgage payments, and the homeless will be allowed to stay in hotels free of charge. Governments will be throwing together some of the largest economic stimulus packages in history. Hundreds of millions of people around the world will be out of work. Almost all public gatherings will be cancelled. These developments are coming so fast that it’s hard to remember just how radical they are.Ĭast your mind back a few weeks and imagine someone telling you the following: within a month, schools will be closed. We refresh the news not because of a civic sense that following the news is important, but because so much may have happened since the last refresh. Every day brings news of developments that, as recently as February, would have felt impossible – the work of years, not mere days.
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