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Comment by twomoretime | Hacker News Reader

The world has been a cooking timebomb and COVID is a fuse. We're about to see layers of bullshit blown away, and believe me, our society is caked in it - in advertising, in politics, in entertainment, in industry. Nothing feels genuine anymore. Race to the bottom dollar with MBA style, soul sucking optimization throughout.

A cleansing fire, perhaps; a deserved reminder that our reality is one of a stone's throw from death. A necessary lesson for an angry but complacent society that has grown fat and weak with comfort and convenience.

I struggle to otherwise explain the near total global failure to deal with a pandemic which was evident as early as January.

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Are societies in Africa and the Middle East that are dealing with this virus 'fat and weak with comfort and convenience'? Do poor and oppressed people in China hit with this virus deserve this reminder that our reality and existence is fragile?

Who says there's been a 'near total global failure to deal' with this pandemic? We're dealing with it right now, and countries around the world are taking drastic steps and decisive action. Perhaps we weren't as prepared as we should've been and I think that case can readily be made, but to think that because you can't explain our lack of preparation, it must mean that this virus and the resulting fallout were 'deserved' or 'necessary' seems pretty cold-hearted in light of all the people affected by this who already were struggling from paycheck to paycheck, just trying to get by and possibly improve their standing in life.

You may be right but nobody cares. People by and large want simple stories, and the story will be "Coronavirus caused all the problems."

The same people will be in charge on the other side. They will admit no responsibility for making our societies this fragile in the first place and blame all ills on unforeseen externalities. Rinse and repeat.

People such as Bill Gates have been talking about the risk of a global pandemic for years. This is a relatively light natural pandemic, a bioweapon would be much worse. Imagine how many FFP3 respirators you can buy for the cost of one aircraft carrier. It's incredible the level of military spending for useless crap and the apparent absence of spending on the real risks to society.

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