Pre and Post Covid19 world: By Jeremy Lent.

https://mahb.stanford.edu/whats-happening/coronavirus-spells-the-end-of-the-neoliberal-era-whats-next/

Jeremy Lent discusses whether the impact of the Covid-19 crisis will change anything: whether the same forces that led to the failure of our socio-ecological systems will radicalize and worsen - or if humanity will grasp this opportunity to transform the post-Covid-19 era into a meaningful one

this coronavirus is revealing the structural faults of a system that have been papered over for decades as they’ve been steadily worsening. Gaping economic inequalities, rampant ecological destruction, and pervasive political corruption are all results of unbalanced systems relying on each other to remain precariously poised. Now, as one system destabilizes, expect others to tumble down in tandem in a cascade known by researchers as “synchronous failure.”

Jeremy Lent’s analysis of the possibility of the post Covid19 world is highly probable. Given human resistance to change I’m not betting on it.  His descriptions of the conditions pre-Covid19 are on target.  What we are now seeing are the inevitable consequences of humanities deficient post WWII choices. 

The so called ‘greatest generation’ failed to put the protection of human security (human rights) above the protection of national sovereignty in creating the United Nations.  Now, us living and generations to come will pay the price for the consequences experts clearly warned us about.  Endless war, more genocides, pandemics, and the unstoppable proliferation of WMD in unimaginable, cheap, easier to use, virtually invisible and anonymous forms.  Some as devastating as nuclear weapons.

Lent referred to the greed but failed to mention the corruption willfully overlooked in our post WW II world.  It quickly became a wheel in the cog of the global economic system and not just a glitch in it.   By 2012 there was an estimate $32 trillion in illicit and anonymous funds stashed in offshore accounts.  Many of those trillions were originally targeted for basic human needs and a sustainable world, or could have been spend on this instead of propping up global criminal cartels and violent extremist groups.   

And this wealth was separate from the unimaginable wealth in the world were anyone making over $30,000 a year belonged in the wealthiest 1% of humanity. You read that correctly. And, the ultrarich make more than 100 times that per day.” [someone please check my math...]

Meanwhile there are nearly 100 unsustainable trends national and globally.  And I’m guessing that fewer than 1 in 50 Americans have even heard of the Sustainable Development Goals.  And even fewer could tell you how many goals there are, or the target date for achieving them.

Instead of ‘life affirming’ values replacing wealth affirmations as the author suggests, we need ‘health affirming values.  In 1981, the United Nation’s General Assembly unanimously adopted a ‘Global Strategy for Health for All’ by the Year 2000. It was WHO that gave birth to this "Health for All" movement but it or the UN was never given the essential financial investments to achieve it. Imagine a world with health for all minds, bodies, spirits, communities, cultures, environments, economies, nations, corporations, banks, values, and global populations.  

It is unfortunate Mr. Lent didn’t mention the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Or our need for comprehensively achieving them before the 2030 deadline the world set pre-Covid-19.  

This inspires little confidence for me - that our species will make the right choices that Mr. Lent is hoping for.