The test of reality

For decades, the USA and other rich nations have had the luxury of dealing with self-created problems.’

Some were self-created (deregulation of finance, foreign intervention), some symbolic (the border wall, Confederate statues) and some imaginary (the Russiagate plot).

Now, however, we’re up against real things. Pandemics don’t care about public opinion polls. Climate change doesn’t care about the limits of the politically possible.

Some nations are demonstrating the resiliency needed to rise to these challenges. Some aren’t. In a few years, we’ll have the results of real-life experiments as to what works and what doesn’t.

My hope is that we Americans will learn from experience. My fear is that we will be unable to endure the pain of facing reality and the consequences of what we have allowed our rulers to do.

∞

COVID-19 is the quiz, climate change is the final exam by Jeff Masters for Yale Climate Connections.

In other news:

Riding the Protest Wave: How Elites Will Co-opt Black Lives Matter by Chris Arnade for American Compass.

Indian Muslims facing ‘genocidal climate’ amid pandemic, an interview of Arundhati Roy for Open Democracy.

Russia’s ruling class nervous over spreading global protests by Andrea Peters for the World Socialist Web Site.