Neoliberalism is the first fatal victim of the coronavirus

Poverty, policy and economic ruin? The true folly of neoliberalism ..

Neoliberalism is the first fatal victim of the coronavirus
The pandemic and the end of an era
By Atilio A. Boron: The coronavirus has unleashed a torrent of reflections and analysis. There are plenty of reasons to venture into this kind of conjecture because if we are completely sure of one thing, it is that the first fatal victim of the pandemic was the neoliberal version of capitalism. We say the “version” because COVID-19 liquidated neoliberalism but not the structure that supports it: capitalism as a mode of production and as an international system. The neoliberal era is already a corpse still unburied but impossible to resurrect. Capitalism, on the other hand, still resists and its future is uncertain. But nothing authorizes to give it up for dead.

Read more Unconsciousness about the pandemic | How long does a bubble live?

I am very sympathetic to the work and the person of Slavoj Zizek but this is not enough for me to agree with him when, in the wonderful note by María Daniela Yaccar on PáginaI12 of March 29 (https://www.pagina12.com.ar/255882 -the-philosophy-and-the-coronavirus-a-new-ghost-that-travels-) states that the pandemic dealt "a Kill Bill blow to the capitalist system" after which, following the cinematographic metaphor, this It should drop dead within five seconds. It has not happened and will not happen because, as Lenin recalled on more than one occasion, "capitalism will not fall if there are no social and political forces to bring it down." Capitalism survived the pandemic of the misnamed "Spanish flu", which we now know saw the light of day at the Fort Riley (Kansas) military base, and which according to imprecise calculations of its lethality, exterminated between 20, 50 and 100 million persons. It also resisted the global collapse produced by the Great Depression, demonstrating an unusual resilience to process crises and even emerge stronger from them. To think that in the absence of those anti-capitalist social and political forces, the long-awaited death of an immoral, unjust and predatory system, the mortal enemy of humanity and nature, will now occur, is more an expression of desires than the product of a concrete analysis. Zizek is confident that humanity will have to resort to "some form of reinvented communism" to save itself. It is possible and desirable, without a doubt. It will depend on whether "those from below do not want to and those from above cannot continue living as before", which we do not know for now. But the conjuncture presents another possible outcome: “barbarism”. In other words, the reaffirmation of the domination of capital by resorting to the most brutal forms of economic exploitation, political-state coercion and manipulation of consciences and hearts through its hitherto intact media dictatorship and the effectiveness of its global surveillance empire.


 Concept Of Manipulation Of Consciousness

In the aforementioned note, the Byung-Chul Han philosopher risks saying that "after the pandemic, capitalism will continue with more vigor." We believe that it is wrong because if something is already drawn on the horizon it is the generalized demand of society in favor of a much more active state intervention to control the maddening effects of the markets in the provision of basic health, housing and security services. social, transport and to end the scandal of the concentration of half of the planet's wealth in the richest 1% of the population. That post-pandemic world will have much more state and much less market, and these will be more regulated, with populations "conscientized" and politicized by the scourge to which they have been subjected and prone to seek solidarity, collective solutions, including "socialists" in countries like the United States, Judith Butler reminds us, repudiating the individualistic and privatist debauchery exalted for forty years by neoliberalism.

In a recent interview Noam Chomsky talks about the "monumental failure" of markets and neoliberal governments in taking care of the health of the population. " (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=t-N3In2rLI4)

"Reagan and Thatcher said that the problem was that governments were suffocating markets" and that, therefore, "governments had to be ended" and their intervention in the areas of health, social security, housing, education, transportation, etc. In the US, this program was scrupulously carried out: Trump announces a major anti-drug operation in the Caribbean to harass Venezuela and Cuba, and in the same note, the Washington Post reproduces the official opinion that the pandemic could "cause between 100 and 240,000 deaths." Why so many? Because according to the American Hospital Association the number of hospital beds has decreased by 39% in recent years in order to increase the occupancy rate of the beds (to oscillate around 90%) and increase the profitability of hospitals. According to this same source, the country has 924,100 beds, but many of them are occupied by chronic patients, and those with Intensive Care Units (ICU) are at most 64,000 beds. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security reported last month that if the pandemic is mild it would require one million people to be hospitalized, 200,000 of whom would require ICU-friendly beds. A severe pandemic would send nearly 10 million to hospitals, and about 2.9 million would require ICU beds. Obviously, many, many people will die outside of hospitals. The destruction of public health is also corroborated when it is observed that local and state health centers have 25% less staff than in 2008; that the crucial Center for Disease Control's budget fell 10% in real terms under Trump and that it dismantled the White House office to coordinate the struggles against the epidemics created by Obama to fight Ebola in 2014.

Read more Unconsciousness about the pandemic | How long does a bubble live?

Statistics of the destruction of the health system reveal the collusion between neoliberal governments and health traffickers: hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry. It is difficult that after the disaster that is coming there are going to be many people in the US who will make fun of Bernie Sanders when he talks about socialized medicine. After this pandemic, and the economic debacle it will leave as a balance, the world will be very different from the one we knew. Nearly 10,000,000 new unemployed enrolled in Social Security this week. Also, what will happen to the 80 million who either do not have health insurance or who do not have it? Will they continue voting to maintain the "privatization" of health? Will they want to die at age 70, as the Lieutenant Governor of Texas asks, to revive the economy? How will 45% of the sick leave paid workforce act? You will have to choose between going to work and catching or catching others, or eating. What seemed normal, even "natural," before the pandemic now appears as a monstrosity. Therefore, the world that has already destroyed will not be reborn again. We are on the eve of a new era, and if we become aware, fight intelligently and organize ourselves properly, we can create a better world, much better.