The most technologically advanced society in human history is on the verge of being brought to its knees by a fish market in Wuhan.
I will bypass the more complex discussion on the aptness of our government’s response (and indeed, that of Xi Jinping’s regime) to the COVID-19 pandemic, as there are others far more qualified to discuss it than I am. One need not be formally educated in current affairs however, to see that this outbreak is itself a symptom of a far deeper, darker, and indeed more sinister illness that is infecting Western society. I speak of course of the scourge of globalism.
We only have to look at the infection statistics for the enlightened, liberal democracies with open borders and compare them with, say, Russia which has fewer total cases than Luxembourg. A country with a population of 144 million and nearly 3000-mile-long border with China, where the virus originated, has fewer cases of COVID-19 than one of Europe’s smallest nations, let alone an epidemic. How can this be? The possibility of a Russian cover-up aside (but then the question becomes how far can you successfully cover it up?), it’s very simple: closed borders.
As well as not suffering from the plague of Coronavirus, Russia does not suffer from the effects of globalism that are currently crippling the English-speaking world and Western Europe. Social conservatism, and – for better or for worse – nationalistic sentiments are both far more endemic and far more socially acceptable in Russia (and indeed Slavic and Eastern European nations in general) than in the West. Nobody in Russia gets called a racist for merely expressing pride over their nationality or defending the sovereignty of the nation-state or daring to suggest that there might be such thing as an indigenous European people group. But for us open, liberal western nations, the free movement of peoples and other globalist dogmas are sacred cows that must never be maligned no matter the consequences for society and individuals.
A rather trite observation no doubt, so what is it in aid of? Well, in its own strange way, these events are full of hope. So far we have only seen speculation as to the longer-term consequences of the current epidemic, but amongst the more optimistic forecasts (from a conservative perspective anyway) is, for example, is the possibility that this will result in a reduction in worldwide travel and movement of peoples. This would of course be a good thing, but as with the Covid-19 itself, it obviously only serves as treatment for the symptoms, not the underlying cause. As such, in order for any changes to the world stage that result from the present crisis to be of value, it falls upon conservatives to take the opportunity we have been given to publicly diagnose this problem, specifically by laying responsibility for this catastrophe at the feet of the globalists.
By pointing to the example of nations like Russia, Singapore, and a few others whose rejection of globalism has directly helped reduce the spread of Covid-19, we may have an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate this ideology for the farce that it is. A cynic might look at this as callous political opportunism on the back of a deadly worldwide natural disaster, rather than as a genuine concern for the wellbeing of the world, Western civilisation, and the general population. I say that is a minor distinction: globalism is deadly and wreaks global havoc, and the present epidemic is one of its distasteful symptoms.
Our society has become too histrionic to see the futility of panic-buying toilet roll in response to a respiratory infection. This hardly inspires confidence that the people can wake up of their own accord to the ugly reality of globalism. It falls to us to shake them from the slumber.