Two Pandemic Takes

My friend Cindy, in an opinion piece the the Regina Leader-Post, Organizing in hard times serves the betterment of community:

Although individualism might help us stay at home alone and learn a new hobby or practise informal learning through our computers or sewing machines, by acting together we can build something sustainable and push for actions that benefit communities and build the commons in the long run. This is our challenge and our need.

The performance of a community comes from its people and actions where the collective trumps the individual. This, fortunately, has become obvious during these difficult times. But actions that prioritize economic growth over the environment and community will only lead us back to the pandemic. It’s time for actions to emphasize public ownership, solidarity and bottom-up changes. Without this, the post-pandemic will present further social and economic divisions.

My friend Lou, on Facebook, links to Well, That Unraveled Quickly from the American Institute for Economic Research:

In the meantime, we’ve seen things we never imagined possible, namely seemingly intelligent people howling for weeks for the nationalization of industry, the socialization of production, the imprisonment in our homes, the trillions in pointless spending, the unprecedented amounts of new money created by the Fed, and the countless other awful legal precedents set. The lawsuits will continue to be litigated for a decade.

The core realization we face right now is that it is not possible to stop and start an economy; nor is it possible to distinguish between essential and nonessential. The commercial society is a web in which everyone and everything is connected with everyone and everything else.

I have a diverse group of friends.