U.S. Dysfunction

 July 09, 2022

Dysfunction

A 2019 study found that the U.S. is the country that is best prepared for a pandemic.

It turned out that assessment, like so many others, had been wrong.

• Viewpoint: We’re Losing the Fight Against COVID-19 So Far - BMJ - Mar 9, 2020
• Why We’re Losing the Battle With Covid-19 - NY Times - Jul 14, 2020
• Why the U.S. Is Losing the War on COVID-19 - Time - Aug 13, 2020
• L.A. County hospitals are losing the battle against COVID-19 surge as problems multiply - L.A. Times - Jan 6, 2021
• We Have Lost The Battle Against Covid-19, But You Can Still Reduce Your Own Risk - Forbes - Aug 25, 2021

Thirty months and a million excess death later I am sorry to see that no lessons have been learned from this catastrophe.

• The U.S. May Be Losing the Fight Against Monkeypox, Scientists Say - NY Times - Jul 9, 2022

> The first cases of monkeypox were reported in May, but tests will not be readily available until sometime this month. Vaccines will be in short supply for months longer. Surveillance is spotty, and official case counts are likely a gross underestimate. <

In the later half of the last century the U.S. was seen by much of the rest of the world as a positive example. The new deal in the 1930s and the success in World War II had left an enduring positive impressions.

There were negative aspects like ingrained racism, the Vietnam war and the aids pandemic. But the U.S. still seemed able to recognize its faults and to correct them. In the 1990s that changed. The cold war had ended but the U.S. continued to be an ideological empire. It is the last one:

As other powers abandon ideology in favor of reasserting national and civilizational claims, the United States and its various clients and satraps remain committed to ideological struggle, to bolstering liberalism—the one modern ideology that survived the previous century’s clash of ideologies.

During the later 1990s I visited the U.S. several times and traveled throughout the country. It was already crumbling. Much was patched over but the damage underneath was clearly visible. In 2000 the dot.com bubble burst followed by another crash in 2008. The war on Iraq and the response to Covid added to the negative impressions. Together they turned the global view around. The city upon a hill had lost its shine.

Today the skyline of St. Petersburg no longer shies away from comparisons with New York. Even tier-3 cities in China beat U.S. metropolises with their quality of life.

International soft power is acquired by being a good example. By being the one that others will strive to be. To get there and to be that requires the ability of the whole society to self correct its mistakes. 

The U.S. has lost that capability.

Posted by b on July 9, 2022 at 11:40 UTC | Permalink

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