THE VEROCIOUSNESS OF CORONAVIRUS: EXPOSING THE DEFICIENCIES OF CAPITALISM AND THE INEVITABILITY OF DIALECTIC MATERIALISM.
(By Kay Aderibigbe)
Various socio-economic challenges have confronted different epochs in history; e.g, the First World War 1914 - 1918, the Spanish flu 1918, the great depression of 1930s, the Second World War 1939 - 1945, the recent Financial crisis of 2008 to mention a few. Some happened to invigorate the era while some took place to debilitate and invariably transform the order of the day to something else entirely. That is why we cannot discuss history without materialism or recoursing to economic order. In the same way, we cannot talk about pandemics without juxtaposing it with the economic values of the system that is in vogue at the time.
Coronavirus is both socioeconomically and politically adhesive in the sense that one cannot isolate the virus without highlighting the economic pros and cons of the international order of the day (globalization). It is apparent that the battle against Covid-19 in the last two months is unfavourable to many nations; and it is likely to continue to be so, at least, for the time being, according to experts.
The virus (Chinese virus), which emanated in Wuhan, China, has infiltrated over 190 countries and the most badly hit are the capitalist societies of the global North. Why did the virus spread uncontrollably in the western world like wild fire? Why so many deaths? What happened to WHO? The big pharmas? What of the secret bio medicines of America and Europe? Where are the higher institutions of leanings of this world, the great laboratories and the Doctors without borders?
Questions as seen above may not be lent to straight-jacket answers because Coronavirus, in some quarters has been tagged to be a function of trade war. The effervescence of Coronavirus resonates across the globe while majority of the capitalist societies had gone asleep in their comfort zones due to the positive terms of trade and favourable balance of payment they enjoyed over time. Locally, these capitalist countries of the West had liberalized virtually all facets of life to the extent that the state cannot unilaterally act in defense of the populace unless via bail outs, and it could only happen in a case of emergency as this. (Andre Gunder Frank, 1992, p.64)
For instance, the big pharmaceutical companies do not deem some health situations so exigent unless it can serve their own profiteering urge. In order to disguise from being profit-driven, many of these research undertakings do more of body edifications and artificial medicology for ambition sake. In most cases, they plough back some of their profits into promotional activities such as pageantry and sports while they neglect the real life-threatening issues. (Noam Chumsky, 2020).
I will blame capitalism for the mess brought upon humanity by Coronavirus because China told WHO precisely, on the 31st of December 2019, that an untraceable disease with features of pneumonia was in town. A week later, it was said to be Coronavirus by the Chinese scientists. These same people made us understood SARS in 2005. If these people (Chinese), are ahead because they knew something that the rest of the world do not know, how come the capitalist nations of the West cannot boast of a near-remedy to the 'supposed modification of the already-know disease (SARS), which can be likened to Covid 19'?, After all, Coronavirus in its original form is not new to humans?
Why is the WHO in a state of higgledy-piggledy over the issue of ordinary face masks? The mannerism of WHO is symptomatic of an institution that is at variance with the realities of the day; unprepared for pandemic and incapable to nip in the bud a large scale health crisis of this nature. The body languages of WHO, US government, EU, UK and the rest of the West when Covid 19 broke out showed vividly that they have at their disposal, a relatively lesser information on how to deal with it head on if the need arises. Yet they slumbered in their follies, hoping that the Chinese government cannot operate on such a level in the name of whatever might be their reason(s) probably in retaliation against trade barriers or sanctions.
The resultant effects of the sheer neglect of predictive scientific preparedness on the path of the capitalist nations is what can now be seen in a long queue of national carriers waiting for China to load them up with PPE (personal protective equipment), as well as ventilators and technical tips on the genetic compositions of the novel Coronavirus. The crisis has even taken a new turn of late in that, nations that are badly hit with the virus are outsmarting one another through outbidding and strategically hijacking of cargoes. All these mess happen in the west while the originator of the deadly virus is on another fantastic step of building the 6G network. What a diversionary motive!
This is how worst it could get when a political ideology relaxes and becomes too comfortable with its own features and achievements while the world undergoes drastic changes. Life within the west will change after this pandemic, no doubt. Political shakes will erupt and the dialectism will be critical because the base of what is wrong internationally is simply the material existence of man in relation to its environments, and how to sustain such through a position, which must have been rationally chosen, to be tenaciously adhere to (Agbaje EBA, 2009).
Right in the midst of the survival battle against the Coronavirus comes the conspiracy theory of G5 and its effects being substituted for Covid 19. For the sake of clarity therefore, Coronavirus, (a distinct fabrication of biological nature) is a weapon of trade war between the Western capitalist nations and the Chinese communist state, likewise the controversies surrounding the concept of G5. What is 5G? This means the fifth generation of wireless communication technologies supporting cellular data networks. Its essence is for the transmission of greater quantum of energy per time. The millimeter wave frequencies of 5G are above 24 GHz reaching up to 72 GHz. (Wikipedia). The radiation effects of this band could be injurious to human beings but cannot kill recklessly because our dear sunlight is far more powerful in terms of UV radiation and we are still alive and healthy.
There is no way the installation of 5G can kill as many people the same way Coronavirus has been killing people in the last three months. Any campaign against 5G is basically undertaken by the misinformed religious people mostly Christians, who doesn't want to be taken unaware by the biblical Antichrist. Secondly, the hue and cry could be sponsored by the capitalists, just to discredit China, who launched 5G through Huawei. This perspective could be slightly valid because the economic advantages of 5G is so sweet that any entity that is in charge of such wireless technology has an edge in terms of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bio medicines, aerospace, satellite communications, autonomous vehicles and a host of other definitional developmental issues of the 21st century.
This very gap is what the neoliberal world must try to, and it is sure they will definitely try to bridge it. Whereas, some people had jumped the gun by assuming a religious interpretation of dialectic materialism in order to find a correlation between pure science and the revelation of a forecasted future. There is nothing bad for the end-time watchers to be vigilant, but the issue at hand will lead to more socioeconomic struggles between the West and the Chinese communist government in the nearest possible future because the Western capitalist bloc cannot afford to: (i) look up to China for technological facilitation/approval (ii) allow only China to control the capital flight accruable from 5G (iii) leave the security architecture of the world in the custody of China because it is dangerous.
In conclusion, various moves by the West to meet up with their communist counterpart after the battle against Coronavirus, which is in itself exhausting, will either make or mar the fate of capitalism; because the people upon whom the structure is being operated must have been traumatized to the extent that they will boldly ask some fundamental questions regarding the potency of neoliberal capitalism. Invariably, we await the transformation of noeliberal tenets to be more rigid, efficacious and daring; or become quite flexible that it will eventually be absorbed by a new political ideology.
