ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
July 3, 2020 | The Descent
Garth Turner
This won’t take long.
It’s been an interesting few days. Canada’s BD on Wednesday. US this weekend. Muted, tentative and confused in both nations. We’re on a journey. Destination, fuzzy. Public sentiment is alternating between fractious and fearful. I titled yesterday’s post ‘Polars’ for a reason. Opinion is splitting quickly, deeply. This damn pandemic has made the cleave worse. It may take a long time for us to regain a sense of purpose. And stop fighting.
The left wants to rewrite history, erase historic injustices, bring racial and gender equality to every corner of life and force unity of thought. It’s assumed the ethical high ground. That’s behind the ‘white silence = violence” meme. Climate change. Universal Basic Income. BLM and BIPOC. As monuments, place names, statues, the RCMP and Canada Day itself are attacked and soiled, we inch closer to the book-burning which swept others into power, pre-war, through the elimination of memory.
The right wants what Trump represents, or tries to. Patriotism, protectionism and power, stressing state over self. Police agencies, first responders and the military are revered and supported. History is seen as a foundation, not a shame. Law and order is celebrated, majority rule is accepted and capitalism embraced. A new nationalism has emerged, tearing away at global ties. Liberty is a virtue, freedom means the right to think independently and protestors should never make choices for you.
Normally a national crisis brings people together in a common cause. Not this one. The first global pandemic of our times has deepened the divisions. To my regret, this has been reflected on this blog, some days to the point of destroying it. Covid has truly frightened many, changed their habits and massively impacted their lives. For others, the virus poses an attack not on society but their value system and their hero, Mr. Trump, who may end up its highest-profile victim in November. Thus, infections are brushed aside as the result of excessive testing and deaths are diminished because they’re just a bunch of old people. The World Health Organization, public health officials, Fauci, Tam and others are routinely undermined.
Well, this is interesting. A tale of two nations. The data below is from John Hopkins University, and measures new daily cases of Covid 19.
New daily infections, Canada
New daily infections, America
Some may look at this and conclude, Canada = compliance. America = resistance. That’s simplistic and facile. Or is it?
The virus doesn’t kill a lot of people but it makes many sick. It certainly has slayed the economy, which hurts those running for reelection in 2020, just as it’s rendered more popular leaders who give away historic amounts of public money, shackling society with future tax and debt. It will be years before we have a valid perspective on this experience.
Meanwhile this site has come to mirror the distemper, prejudice and intolerance of our times. And I hate it.
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Garth Turner July 3rd, 2020
Posted In: The Greater Fool