Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

 A very good piece. “Better?” I say, in a small voice. How can he think this is better? “Better never means better for everyone,” he says. “It always means worse, for some.”   – Margaret Atwood,  The Handmaid’s Tale (Re)creating disaster risks

How could any society fail to recognize that big problems are looming up, and why doesn’t the society take measures to alert disaster?  It was surprise  at this question that caused the archaeologist Joseph Tainter, in his 1988 book The Collapse of Complex Societies, to dismiss out of hand the possibility that complex societies could collapse as a result of depleting environmental resources.  Tainter considered it implausible that complex “societies [would] sit by and watch the encroaching weakness without taking corrective actions.”  But that is precisely what has often happened in the past, and what is happening under our eyes today.  Hence my chapter draws up a roadmap of group decision-making, starting with failure to perceive a problem in its initial stages, and ending with refusal to address the problem because of conflicts of interest and other reasons. — Jared Diamond

At the end of the day it is the state that could mobilise manpower and resources to deal with crises. In the era of neoliberal capitalism the state has retreated and social services have been cut. Priorities have been given to PR, "NOG's", "aid",  "war on terror", finance, and wars for geopolotical interests.  The smaller the state, the argument foes, the better it works for the private sector and for individuals freedoms. Thus, the kings have become the shareholders and the motto "get richer".  Now we see even the defenders of the system, the worshipers of "liberal democracy" (i.e. capitalist globalisation and capital accumulation), have woken up and they are digging for warnings that were made and governments that were unprepared. Here is a good summary in this FT article . "The virus started to feel real to Europeans only when Europeans were suffering. Logically, it was always clear that the disease could strike mid...