Top Ten Ways This Course Relates to Coronavirus
Class Tensions Rising
Karl Marx once said "capital is therefore not only personal; it is social power" (1848, 10). Those who have the means and the money to support themselves rule the world. In his article, Joseph Kishore outlines the social unrest and growing wave of walk-outs and demonstrations by workers throughout the country. The protests revolve around one reality: "For the working class, the fight against the pandemic and for their lives is at the same time a fight against capitalism" (2020). Essential employees have been forced to go back to work with inadequate safety measures or protective equipment, and worse, poverty-level wages with no benefits. While trillions of dollars are being transferred to Wall Street, Trumps's orders force meatpacking workers into unsafe conditions while the he lets the company be released from legal liability of their employees.
Marx wasn't wrong when he said, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (1). This pandemic has brought the class divide to the surface. While the rich fly off to private islands and vacation homes, the working class is stuck where they are, risking their lives on a daily basis to keep the economy running. They are supporting all of us but yet do not get any protection or recognition.
Anomie within our Society
Durkeim spoke of a type of failure in society called anomie. This is a term that refers to a breakdown social norms and regulation. "A state of anomie is impossible wherever organs solidly linked to one another are in sufficient contact, and in sufficiently lengthy contact" (2007 [1893], 177). With the norms of life ripped from our grasp and looming fear of contracting the virus, the world is in a state of upheaval with uncertainty to when this will all end. Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental-health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide (Wan 2020). When the virus hit, hospitals were caught unprepared for the virus, but the mental -health system is even less prepared to handle the coming surge. It is important to note that while Congress is trying to help our economy, mental health has been greatly impacted due to how fast people's lives have changed (isolation, unemployment, quarantine, etc.). There is help out there, but will it be able to hand the sheer amount of people that will need it?
Volunteers fight a mental health crisis amid the coronavirus outbreak
Although this video on the right is supposed to be funny, there are people who are truly going through this struggle.
“We’re now hitting a period of uncertainty where a lot of people are asking themselves how long they can keep it up, the teapot can only boil for so long" (Wan 2020)
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These slides and pictures were taken from (Iqbal 2020) and (Lakritz 2020)
Social Structure
C. Right Mills defined social imagination as "be[ing] aware of the idea of social structure and to use it with sensibility to be capable of tracing such linkages among a great variety of milieux (1959, 33). Social structures are the institutions that shape how we act in society and these structures are affected by our biography (our issues: public and private) and our history. This is definitely a time for the history books. This virus, keeping us contained in our homes, is already causing a shift in our relationship to our government, to the world, and even to each other. By looking at past like at the 1918 influenza, 9/11, or even the 2008 recession, we can make guesses as to where our society is going and take an educated guess at what we will need or what will happen in the future. There is no saying as to what will happen for sure, but by thinking about our society it in this way, we can try to help strengthen our society like better mental care, health care, etc.
Here are a few pictures on how the world has changed at the present time.
Makeshift Hospitals
Masks
Remote Meetings
The Search for the Cure
Empty Streets
These slides and pictures were taken from (Stoye 2020)
Self-Interest in Politics
Adam Smith talks about how we as people are all self-interested, but because of division of labor, we have talents and goods to exchange so that our interactions mutually beneficial. "Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want" (Smith 1776, 1). During this time, there is an issue of self-interests. We may all be interested in going out and getting back to our normal lives again, but it is not in our self-interest because everyone could get sick again. Seems that at this time, if we get what we want, we will lose, and if we don't get what we want, we still lose. This is all just a lose-lose. As for Trump's predicament: maximizing chances of re-election or ensuring the safety of the American public (Stern 2020). He has two choices: supporting continued shelter-in-place orders or revving up the economy again to support his reelection campaign. With pressure to keep the country closed down, Trump agreed to extend the shelter-in-place. This act of self-interest may not have helped the economy, but could helped Trump's self-interest to get re-elected because the American people think he is listening to them and it also worked in the American people's self-interest.
Social Action
Max Weber pointed out four types of social actions based on rationalism: instrumental, value, affectual, and traditional rationalism. In light of this pandemic, some of these have become more important than others. I will discuss them in the following slides.
Instrumentally Rational
This is pursuing the means that will maximize the ends, mainly in the terms of self-interest (Weber 1904, 24). This type of rationality has been at the top of the list during this pandemic while the others are generally put to the side. Most of our action has been in order to stop the spread of the virus,in the form of wearing masks and social distancing.
Value-Rational
Value rational is action based on religious, moral, aesthetic, etc (Weber 1904, 24) . Going to church may be a part of someone's values and in order to take action, many churches have adapted. A local church in Albuquerque has adapted by using their parking lot and setting up a stage for their worshipers and pastors while the church-goers would stay in the car and listen to a specific radio channel. Others get together on Zoom.
Affectual
Affectual action is based on specific feelings at the time (Weber 1904, 25). Recently, for multiple reasons, but mainly because people feel as if it is too difficult to stay at home, Americans have come out of their homes to protest the stay at home order. Protesters argue that the psychological effects are too much and will lead to worse problems down the road (Bosman 2020)
Traditional
Traditional action is determined by "ingrained habituation" (Weber 1904, 25). Traditional behaviors like going to work and school have completely changed, but we may be developing new tradition actions at the moment: more online meetings, and more take-out, perhaps.
Globalization and its Effects
Emile Durkeim mentioned that the division of labor would increase the "number and speed of the means of communication and transmission" (2007 [1893],74) which would lead to globalization. In the development of globalization, countries all over the world have become connected, which is both a gift and a curse. We trade with each other, and rely on each other in times of need; but, on the other hand, we go to war with each other and politics are just a mess sometimes. Right now, we are seeing the collapse of world trade on a scale never before seen in peacetime. There is a risk that today’s emergency measures will change into real rules: barriers to travel, trade, and invest (Frum 2020). Countries could decide they do not want to rely on imported medical equipment, antibiotics or vaccines. It would be irrational, but this virus could be the cause of closing borders. Not only does globalization affect trade, but it was the reason that the virus spread so fast. There were no rules put in place for a situation such as this, and before we knew it, everything went out of hand.
Racial Tensions
W.E.B. Dubois once said this about race: " Everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honorable is white; everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonorable is 'yellow'" (2004, 35). This pandemic has brought racial tensions to the surface. Ever since the beginning of the virus, American-Asians, who have nothing to do with the cause of the virus, have been victims of physical and verbal assaults. Even though they were born and raised in the same country as any other American, Asians have been treated unequally. Many Asians immigrated here for a better life, but to be treated like this is a blow to the face.
“It’s a look of disdain. It’s just: ‘How dare you exist in my world? You are a reminder of this disease, and you don’t belong in my world’” (Tavernise and Oppel, 2020)
To add fuel to the fire, Trump referred to coronavirus as the "Chinese Virus." This kind of language incites racist attacks and places blame on a certain people in a geographical location. This kind of language not only places blame, but transfers responsibility. The virus may have originated in one area but globalization and capitalism made it spread further and faster. The United States' unwillingness to quickly respond to the virus in the fear of its effect on the economy but willingness to send the working class out into the world with no safety protection will affect America in a negative way. Note, these events completely unrelated to the Chinese.
Women are Affected the Most
Women have long since been mistreated and looked down on, but in the midst of this crisis, the problems that women must deal with have been placed aside and replaced with the coronavirus. As Judith Lorber suggests, "Once gender is ascribed, the social order constructs and holds individuals to strongly gendered norms and expectations" (1996, 58). Though we have made progress since 1996, there's a chance that this virus pulls us all the way back to the 1950's (Lewis 2020). With normal life essentially suspended, some women will have to step down from their jobs and stay home while the husband goes out and makes the money. Single mothers get a harder bargain. They now have to stay home and be able to provide for their families with absolutely no help. The norms that women were trying to break down might build up again after this virus sweeps over the world. In addition to childcare, many women have the possibility of unplanned pregnancy. With the healthcare system on overload, and family services closing, women may not have access to contraceptives. "As well as resulting in an increased risk of abortions, hemorrhages, and miscarriages, unwanted pregnancies effectively raise maternal mortality. Children and households will be left without mothers. It launches up a whole vicious circle" (Moynihan 2020). There is also science that backs up a higher rate of domestic violence during this time. Without the ability to intervene, organizations like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimate 31 million cases of domestic violence that could otherwise be thwarted (2020).
Increased Surveillance Around the World
In his study of prison systems, Michel Foucault explored the idea of the panopticon, a way for a guard to see others without being seen himself. "The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately... He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication" (1996[1997], 200). The guards had power because the prison inmates could see the towers they were in, but not the guards themselves. Because the inmates never knew if the guards were watching or not, they just assumed that they were and regulated their behavior accordingly. Since coronavirus became a pandemic, many countries have started monitoring their citizens. I will show a brief overview of what countries have started doing or are thinking of doing below. In the age of technology, there is almost no such thing as privacy or anonymity anymore. The government can locate us, watch us, and track us if they wanted to, and coronavirus is the perfect excuse for governments to start permanently tracking us all.
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1
Argentina
Mandatory app for pinning location
2
Australia
Government equipment for location tracking
3
Austria
Anonymized location data
4
Bahrain
Electronic bracelets connected to a mobile app
5
Belgium
Giving data to private companies to track individuals
6
Brazil
Tracking data from smart phones
7
Canada
Police have access to a government database the tells them who tested positive for corona
8
China
Authorities are tapping publicly located cameras to run facial recognition searches, citizens are being location-tracked through their phones, and drones are being put to use in order to give directions from the government.
The Chinese government is also tracking individuals in more than 200 cities through a smartphone app that grades their health and assigns them a classification of green, yellow, or red. The app sends that data to the police and works as a hall pass for entry into certain public places. Travel to designated hot spots, contact with an infected person, or reported symptoms in the app can result in red and yellow designations, which restrict a person’s movement
9
Dubai
Cameras tracking drivers licence plates to see if the worker is essential or not.
10
Ecuador
Using tracking location to enforce a 9pm curfew.
11
France
Mandatory app called Stop Covid as well as mass surveillance
12
Germany
Personal based app that tracks location and contacts as well as smartwatch app that determines if people are displaying signs of the virus
13
Hong Kong
Electronic wristbands that track location
This is only a select few countries, not all. All information obtained from: (Gershgorn 2020)
