Covid19 has disrupted everything in life. Perhaps the only area in which I’m fortunate is I didn’t lose my job like millions of other Americans who were forced out of work by the lockdowns. I’ve been working from home for 6 weeks (that policy has been extended 4 times, the latest until May 1). In the last 4 weeks my company has gone from across-the-board salary cuts to furloughs and layoffs that impacted 2% of employees. I didn’t dodge the first but so far have dodged the other two.
Notable too is how the disruption to normal human activity and commerce has affected everyone in radically opposite ways. Even within my own household, divisiveness over the wisdom of locking down businesses and declaring martial law goes as deep as allegiance to the Confederacy or Union did during the Civil War. It pits not just geographical regions but towns, families and siblings against each other. My spouse and offspring think it is a good and necessary thing to stop all commerce until it is “safe” to go back to the life we had before, like that is an option. They also believe some people (among them, me) are too “individualistic” and “obsessed” with rights and are putting the “common good” at grave risk. To them, “safety first” can coexist with an economic crash and another Great Depression.
Some thoughtful individuals have asked, “How could this crisis possibly be interpreted as the unfolding of a NWO” when it has adversely affected so many, including investors and the super-rich, who must be hurt by the collapse of so many industries? In every watershed moment in history, someone has always profitted, has always reaped reward from the misfortune of others. Why not now?