During this oftentimes disproportionate panic one must not forget to look at the benefits brought by this period. Especially considering that some of the benefits are quite significant in their own right.
First of all, let’s get one thing clear: one must continue to insist on discussing this topic by using names such as ‘Wuhan-chan’, ‘the Chinese virus’, ‘the Wuhan flu’ and other similar terms. The Chinese propaganda machine is already working overtime to convince as many people as possible that this new infection from the Coronavirus family is perhaps American(!), Italian, or really anything else but Chinese.
So with that said…
1. Even the globalists are finding out about the notion of countries
The Cathedral Media has already been “warning” us for the last month that the “far-Right” and/or the “populist right” is using the topic to remind everyone that countries are good, secured borders are great and that lack of them is kinda cancer. Or Chinese flu, in this case.
The problem is that it’s no longer just the “populist right” (whatever that is) – but really almost everyone non-insane. Just a few days ago, North Rhine Westphalia (the largest and the most Leftist state in Germany) overwhelmingly voted against receiving new migrants and in favor of a stronger position with regards to the federal borders. All political parties, including the SPD, agreed – with only the Green Party voting in favor of more mass immigration and open borders. The Green Party, for those newer in this, is the political party that used to run networks of “anti-authoritarian” kindergartens in the ’70s and ’80s. Part of the “anti-authoritarian” nature of the kindergartens was that sex with children was permitted.
The same Green Party is now unironically peddling the narrative that literally everyone except them is basically a Nazi. I wish I were joking.
Joke or no joke, the existence of the panic related to the Wuhan flu brought the level of public questioning of borders to a historical low. And that is a good thing!
2. “Citizens of the world” are suddenly gone
You know that “I’m a global citizen” type of person? I do. ‘Cause oftentimes I have to bear with such soulless vermin.
Well, as it turns out, globalism is indeed a luxury belief in most cases (just as we’ve been saying here for 5 years now) since when push came to shove and the snowflake got a little bit scared – most of them suddenly rushed to their places of origin. And a lot more are still trying even though their countries of origin may have shut down their borders already and advising them to stay put.
Look, it’s unlikely that this panic will cure a lot of cases but if it makes 5% of the cases to reconsider a soulless and rootless existence, that should be counted as a win in itself. It sure would be faster than a propaganda and subversion exercise.
3. It reveals how many State employees are related
Over here in Romania a lot of memes and jokes got circulated at the expense of a retired police officer (patient number 17) whose behavior is responsible for up to 48 of the 131 cases in Romania.
This guy traveled to Israel with his mistress. They both got the Wuhan flu there and then came back. A few days later he checked into a military hospital but failed to mention his trip (because his mistress’ existence was a secret). In the meantime, he infected his wife, his son, a colleague of his son, most of the wife’s workplace and so on. Not to mention that an entire hospital was quarantined as a result as well, blocking some essential medical personnel for 14 days. All those infected were working for the State (his son in the intelligence community, his mistress at the census department, etc.). The famiglia is big with this one.
But this is not exactly unique. In fact, globally, it seems that State employees are disproportionately affected by this Chinese virus.
While the piece of news that claimed Preisdent Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil had contacted the new coronavirus was fake news (and one spread with an ideological motivation at that!) – it is nonetheless true that, except for China and Italy, many state officials did get much closer to contamination with the Wuhan flu than the general population in their respective countries.
The most spectacular case is in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but other cases are interesting too – such as Canada or France. In Canada, Turdeau’s wife got some Coronachan and in France at least one Cabinet member did too, turning Macron suddenly fearful. Understandably so, Macron’s wife is top of the list in the persons at fatal risk 🤪
On a more serious note, the fact that this virus appears to physically remove (though for now only temporary) government employees is in itself a good thing. There’s too many of them anyway. Too much goddamn government everywhere.
This situation also reveals that a lot (if not most) government structures are quite literally run by clans who are related to each other to a much higher degree than normies had expected.
Now, of course, this is not exactly a secret for anyone who has been following politics in more than three countries for more than a year. Some of us have been explaining these things literally for decades. But it sure did become slightly easier now when there’s direct epidemiological link to show it to skeptical normies who still buy into the disdainful nonsense that the State is there to help them. Or, in the case of the former Western Block, that corruption and nepotism is only for the plebs and it doesn’t happen in their enlightened societies.
4. Price of oil has gone down
It is true that oil was already getting cheaper even before the Wuhan-chan panic as a result of the gas war between OPEC and Russia but, at the same time, the panic did accelerate the issue even further.
Oil prices plunged by more than 25% as a result of the panic and will continue to stay low for at least 10 to 12 days at the very least. This is in itself a great piece of news for the poorest members of our society who may need now more than ever to use their cars in order to avoid crowded places (such as buses or subways) and abide by the “social distancing” recommendations.
Also, it is in general a good thing for everyone when oil prices go down. It usually means the price of some material goods also going down. Or at least staying stable and offsetting other price increases generated by the Wuhan virus panic. The smarter investors (including governments) with cash at hand are now stockpiling oil – as they should. You won’t get such a discount anytime soon.
5. Little dictators reveal themselves
While the economically dumb reveal themselves during a recession, the best time to notice the unaccounted little dictators is during a time of panic.
Usually counting the dictators is hard because many peoples already tend to have a boner for authoritarianism and dictatorship. The great wisdom of the more populist brand of freedom-based social order is that the fear of having that “other guy’s” dictatorship installed leads to a de facto freer state of things. James Madison in the Federalist Papers described it as “ambition made to counteract ambition” – but the idea is very similar and much older than the United States itself.
James Madison only thought about how things could work with a non-panicked populace. He did not, however, theorize on what would happen if all (or at least most) of the factions of an otherwise diverse and competing country would become united by (oftentimes disproportionate) fear. Well,… one thing is certain: during such times it makes it easier to count the little dictators that lie even in some of the most unexpected corners.
Of course, for those more liberal-minded, this is in itself terrible news. But for those who think at a civilizational scale, this is a very useful piece of information. Knowing which kind of little dictators (and in what proportions) you have in your country helps you craft better messaging in the future when “selling” various policies or principles.
One has to remember that the best propaganda is not that which is artistically the most pleasant. Or that which is the most ideologically coherent. The best propaganda is that which resonates with as many factions as possible (including competing ones) in the context in which that piece of propaganda is distributed.
6. Distrust in the EU is growing
Of course, the hardline eurofanatics (which are at the most 3% of the population of any EU nation) are terrified these days. So terrified that they all crawled out of the woodwork on social media threads, on TV, in the Cathedral Media broadcasts and everywhere else they could, desperately trying to tell us about the pocket change “investment initiative” launched by the EU alegedly meant to be used to combat the crisis – as a show-off of how useful the EU is in these perilous times.
The problem is that everyone also heard Ursula von der Leyen who told us all that closing the borders is haram and that the distribution of the funds will be made using the usual bureaucratic channels. Which, among other things, means that Poland (231 cases, 0 deaths as of the moment of this writing) will get more than Italy (which is by far Europe’s most affected country). Madam Ursula is also forgetting to mention something that anyone who has ever worked near a EU project already knows – namely that the “classical” mechanism also means a lot of make-work jobs, long payment delays and, of course, more corruption.
The eurofanatics and their propagandists (some of them paid by your taxpayer money!) will be working overtime in the next few days trying to convince as many people as possible that things aren’t exactly like that. Some of them go as far as to outright assert that Ursula von der Leyen’s statement is “fake news” (a tactic confirmed already in Poland and Romania and soon to be deployed in the rest of the border-conscious countries).
This doesn’t appear to be working, so far. The more moderate fans of the EU have quickly understood and internalized the fact that the EU is basically nowhere to be found and on this issue everyone is basically for himself.
You see, the EU exists in order to prevent activist communist judges from being removed by a democratically elected government. Or to overrun referenda. But not for useful things.
7. Terrorist threat is going down
Admittedly, not by much, but it’s something. The Islamic State itself warned its members to avoid Europe. You know, that Islamic State that Obama used to tell us it wasn’t Islamic.
So apparently Wuhan-chan is haram, after all.
8. Gradual growth of economic education
Economic illiteracy is endemic to Europe and is often seen even among the ranks of those who should know better. Also, the lack of common sense in any discussion about economics is also widely prevalent in almost all political parties of Europe.
The panic generated by the Chinese virus is however getting surprisingly many individuals to face questions which less than three months ago were the purview of the “far right”, or of the “social fascists” (as the far-Left calls normal people these days) or of the “cavemen nationalists” (as normal people are routinely called at Renew Europe when Mr. Cioloș thinks we can’t hear him).
Now, of course, there is a long way to go and we’re far from the goal of getting the political class or the plebs to a decent literacy level when it comes to economics. For instance, we could observe these days so-called libertarians with F.A. Hayek quotes on their profiles seriously explaining that it’s “normal” for the Maximal State to cap prices during a crisis. If Hayek were alive, he would’ve developed a special breed of Coronachan because of this heresy.
However, despite all of that, more people have asked the correct questions in the last 4 or 5 days than in the previous 4 or 5 years combined. Questions such as: “Is it really wise to manufacture essential products 8000km+ away from your country?”
Or even more daring questions like: “Aren’t we helping our nation more by buying our products than by staging useless protests and flash-mobs?”
But even with this panic, economic wisdom’s advance is still very slow. But at least it is advancing slightly faster than 3 months ago. From this perspective, it may indeed be helpful if the panic lasts, say, two months. Two months could realign important segments of the electorate. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all!
9. Homeschooling becomes not just socially accepted, but in fact mandatory
Not only did homeschooling became literally overnight the absolute norm in some countries, but even the State-sponsored TV stations are joining the effort. For instance in Romania, a country in which any talk about homeschooling normally gets you branded as an extremist, now the State TV brought back a commie-era show called “Tele-school” in which regular classes are being taught at a similar pace as in a normal school.
For now the schools are due to stay closed till March 22nd in Romania. Most of the countries of Europe that did impose this measure have done so until March 31st at the most (or somewhere in that ballpark). But what if the panic prolongs and schools would stay closed till early May?
That could lead to a situation in which a school year ends successfully after almost 100% of the pupils learned from home for a whole semester. This could lead to more parents realizing that homeschooling is not the Boogeyman described by the teachers’ unions – and may indeed be something pleasant and even desirable in certain cases for certain children.
10. Trust in the €uro-zone will sink further
The euro-zone itself and the euro currency should have never come into existence. But, since they did, the area hasn’t been successful in making itself too popular with investors. The European Central Bank has been trying for more than 10 years already to at least apply basic monetary theory on the euro currency and the success rate is basically zero.
Now, with the Wuhan virus situation, some more panic on the market is coming too which leads to more rushed and irresponsible actions of governments (and a lot more will soon follow) – such as the unlimited cash plan for companies dubbed as “Bazooka” in Germany, or the almost limitless printing press by the ECB.
Sure, it is entirely possible that we won’t get all the way to a Venezuela-tier type of situation. But it doesn’t even have to get that far. Just the measures already announced and the ones forecast by those in the know are enough to tear apart even the modicum of trust that the eurozone was still enjoying.
Add on top of that the fact that Italy already hadn’t recovered after the 2008 economic crisis and its economy is now clearly affected the harshest by the Chinese virus situation… er… you do the math.
Next year around this time don’t be surprised if you will increasingly see prices displayed in US Dollars in the eurozone – which is a very common practice in the countries or areas in which the local currency becomes synonymous with toilet paper.
But still…
We laugh, we make jokes (and will continue to do so), but the fact is that this period will also bring a lot of clown world situations. And some of those can already be observed. For instance, in Germany, the State is much more concerned about the discussions at the bar between AfD members than about the German economy or the Wuhan flu. Their Ministry of Internal Affairs quite literally announced that it will send informers and operatives in order to compile dossiers with the private conversations in case someone from AfD is too mad on a certain religion of peace or on the armed branch of the far-Left pompously known as “AntiFa”. It’s the good old days once again for comrade Merkel!
In the US also a few weirdos found themselves explaining how it’s now time for “universal basic income” – and the total amount of ideologically-motivated stupidity being spread in the public will rise sharply in the next 20 days or so. It probably won’t survive too long, but the next few weeks will for sure bring about a lot of strong H🤡NK.
Well, such is life and life goes on. All we need is to maintain our mental and physical health. But especially the mental one!
In other words – be wise and avoid being stupid. Don’t panic and don’t make decisions when you’re being an idiot. Ideally, you should also turn off your TV (if, by chance, you still have such a device in The Current Year + 5). If you’re in a country with hysterical media (such as Romania, Italy or the USA), turning off your TV is a priority!
So here’s a public service announcement: To preserve your mental health, turn off your TV and don’t turn it on for at least 40 days.
The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian word “quaranta” which means forty. Forty was the number of days a ship had to wait in a port before permission was granted for the crew to get into the city during the plague in late 1340s AD.
A TV quarantine is indeed very useful for you!
That’s it. Cheers! See y’all soon on the channel.
