Easter in a time of pestilence

That's a catchy title, but it's also a little ho-hum when you think about it. There's always pestilence somewhere all the time, including at Easter.

How does this pestilence compare to the one that held Easter hostage from 1939 to 1945?

Nevertheless, we're hoping by next Easter we can get together with family again. By then we'll likely have a better handle on exactly what the current pestilence is all about. My hunch is that we're going through something that Naomi Klein will be analysing in the sequel to "The Shock Doctrine."

Which is not to say that coronavirus is fake. It's obviously very real, and has done a lot of damage.

A year from now we'll have a sense of whether the virus justified the actions we've taken to fight it. The global economy isn't shut down, yet, but the damage has been massive. By next Easter we'll know if the cure was worse than the disease, or not.

That global economy everybody is worried about hasn't exactly been in great shape, wildly over-exuberant share prices notwithstanding. For over forty years, as the ranks of the billionaires inexorably expand, the lived lives of the vast majority have been deteriorating. That's got to end somewhere, and the billionaires know it.

That's why they're stuffing their pockets to the tune of trillions in government handouts, which the little people will get to pay off through taxes and austerity for the next hundred years.

That's why we need to take this opportunity to look around, and rather than aim for "normal," consider what might be possible.


After all, this time of year is all about new beginnings.


Happy Easter!