'The Unravelling of America,' Rolling Stone. Even Great Empires Have Their Day [View all]

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'The Unraveling of America.' Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era. By Wade Davis, Rolling Stone, Aug. 6, 2020.
[Davis holds the Leadership Chair in Cultures & Ecosystems at Risk at the Univ. of British Columbia. His award-winning books include “Into the Silence” & “The Wayfinders.” His new book is “Magdalena: River of Dreams.”]

Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. For the first time in the history of the world, all of humanity, informed by the unprecedented reach of digital technology, has come together, focused on the same existential threat, consumed by the same fears and uncertainties, eagerly anticipating the same, as yet unrealized, promises of medical science. In a single season, civilization has been brought low by a microscopic parasite 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. COVID-19 attacks our physical bodies, but also the cultural foundations of our lives, the toolbox of community and connectivity that is for the human what claws and teeth represent to the tiger.



Our interventions to date have largely focused on mitigating the rate of spread, flattening the curve of morbidity. There is no treatment at hand, and no certainty of a vaccine on the near horizon. The fastest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. It took four years. COVID-19 killed 100,000 Americans in four months. There is some evidence that natural infection may not imply immunity, leaving some to question how effective a vaccine will be, even assuming one can be found. And it must be safe. If the global population is to be immunized, lethal complications in just one person in a thousand would imply the death of millions.

Pandemics and plagues have a way of shifting the course of history, and not always in a manner immediately evident to the survivors. In the 14th Century, the Black Death killed close to half of Europe’s population. A scarcity of labor led to increased wages. Rising expectations culminated in the Peasants Revolt of 1381, an inflection point that marked the beginning of the end of the feudal order that had dominated medieval Europe for a thousand years.

'No empire long endures, even if few anticipate their demise. Every kingdom is born to die. The 15th century belonged to the Portuguese, the 16th to Spain, 17th to the Dutch. France dominated the 18th & Britain the 19th.'

The COVID pandemic will be remembered as such a moment in history, a seminal event whose significance will unfold only in the wake of the crisis. It will mark this era much as the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the stock market crash of 1929, and the 1933 ascent of Adolf Hitler became fundamental benchmarks of the last century, all harbingers of greater and more consequential outcomes. COVID’s historic significance lies not in what it implies for our daily lives. Change, after all, is the one constant when it comes to culture. All peoples in all places at all times are always dancing with new possibilities for life...

More, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

Dr. Wade Davis, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/real-world-geography-dr-wade-davis

(~ Interesting essay from a Canadian neighbor & scientist. I hope the demise doesn't come to pass, naturally).

- Aug. 17, 2020. Interview with Canadian author Wade Davis, Prof. of Anthropology at British Columbia University.
Amid a global pandemic, with a polarized political electorate, and with protesters crowding the streets, one wonders if the American Era might be coming to an end. Wade Davis certainly would argue that it is. In a recent article for 'Rolling Stone,' he wrote about COVID-19 as a factor in “the unraveling of America." Davis shares his thoughts with Hari Sreenivasan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Davis_(anthropology).