This is the first of a series of essays in which, drawing on the wisdom of experts in social psychology and authoritarianism in the modern age, I try to make sense of the state we're in.
Thank you for the essay! I must reread it more closely, and look forward to future installments in this series.
While I too lament our sudden loss of many liberties, and agree we need to be alert to the danger of anyone using the pandemic as an opportunity for more far-reaching power-grabs, I am less suspicious than you seem to be about the motives of governments trying to deal with the crisis. This is something instinctive, I think, and is possible naive - but if I had to offer some evidence to support it, it might be that more authoritarian leaders of our time (Orbán, Bolsonaro, Trump) were/are among the most likely to minimise the threats posed by Covid-19, and the least likely to support the kind of mandates recommended by public-health officials.
Of the thinkers you cite, I am most familiar with Fromm, and have long intended to read more Arendt. The others are new to me, and very intriguing - again, thank you!
Having originally subscribed to your travel-writing, I realise that vaccine passports and restrictions on international flights are particularly regrettable to you - and I agree that this is severely detrimental to fundamental human needs to seek society and interest. On the other hand, from a climate-change perspective, the brake Covid-19 has imposed on ever-expanding international flights is perhaps welcome, and might even have opened people's eyes to the less exotic richness of their immediate circles.
Yours, also reeling from the barrage of the past 22 months,
I also meant to say, I've seen Mattias Desmet speak in another video, and he is certainly worth listening to. I encourage your readers to check out the interview you linked.
Thanks for this wonderful essay. I'm seeing more and more of these kinds of thoughtful and informative pieces. Interestingly, although you and others are noticing the same things, each writer takes on the topic with such originality that the same things aren't being said twice. The fact that there are so many personal perspectives, and not just repetition of ideology, is what lets me know that we are on the right side of history.
You have captured in words the increasing unease, disillusionment – and even fear – my partner and I have been experiencing over the last eighteen months or so. Thank you for doing this; for making it concrete.
Thank you for the essay! I must reread it more closely, and look forward to future installments in this series.
While I too lament our sudden loss of many liberties, and agree we need to be alert to the danger of anyone using the pandemic as an opportunity for more far-reaching power-grabs, I am less suspicious than you seem to be about the motives of governments trying to deal with the crisis. This is something instinctive, I think, and is possible naive - but if I had to offer some evidence to support it, it might be that more authoritarian leaders of our time (Orbán, Bolsonaro, Trump) were/are among the most likely to minimise the threats posed by Covid-19, and the least likely to support the kind of mandates recommended by public-health officials.
Of the thinkers you cite, I am most familiar with Fromm, and have long intended to read more Arendt. The others are new to me, and very intriguing - again, thank you!
Having originally subscribed to your travel-writing, I realise that vaccine passports and restrictions on international flights are particularly regrettable to you - and I agree that this is severely detrimental to fundamental human needs to seek society and interest. On the other hand, from a climate-change perspective, the brake Covid-19 has imposed on ever-expanding international flights is perhaps welcome, and might even have opened people's eyes to the less exotic richness of their immediate circles.
Yours, also reeling from the barrage of the past 22 months,
Tom
I also meant to say, I've seen Mattias Desmet speak in another video, and he is certainly worth listening to. I encourage your readers to check out the interview you linked.
Thanks for this wonderful essay. I'm seeing more and more of these kinds of thoughtful and informative pieces. Interestingly, although you and others are noticing the same things, each writer takes on the topic with such originality that the same things aren't being said twice. The fact that there are so many personal perspectives, and not just repetition of ideology, is what lets me know that we are on the right side of history.
You have captured in words the increasing unease, disillusionment – and even fear – my partner and I have been experiencing over the last eighteen months or so. Thank you for doing this; for making it concrete.