Excellent, timely article by Paul D. Miller (Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service). 

There’s something antiquated about our enforced #coronacation. Like peasants in the 14th century warding off the plague-ridden and the unclean, we have abandoned human contact. Handshakes are out; elbow bumps are in. Our cities are empty, our marketplaces abandoned, our festivals depopulated. My family has survived 9/11, the anthrax attacks, war in Afghanistan, the Beltway Sniper, Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, Snowmaggedon, and two earthquakes.

Yet none of those events accomplished what the COVID-19 global pandemic has: civilization has ground to a halt.

I believe there’s a blessing here, much like the little girl who, given a large pile of manure on Christmas, celebrates because a pony must be around somewhere. We’ve been given a pile of manure in the form of a global pandemic. Thousands are dead, thousands more will die, and the living will be poorer and more frightened for years to come. 

Where’s the pony? 

The rest of the article can be viewed here. 

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