This is why Europe will emerge defeated by the pandemic: the insane claim of “zero risk” and to exclude pain
We don't know exactly when the pandemic will end, but we are sure of one thing: Europe, as we know it, will be defeated. The first to understand it was Friedrich Nietzsche: what we live in is a world built on false beliefs, a house of cards destined to collapse at any moment.
For years we have been lulled into the illusion of unconditional well-being. We have lived beyond our means by squandering the wealth earned with blood, tears and sweat from previous generations. Nowadays, in the midst of the digital revolution, we consult social media twenty-four hours a day in search of an artificial and sometimes grotesque happiness. We must necessarily appear happy even when we are not in order to be welcomed and well-liked by a society that rejects the very concept of pain. Deluded by the progress of medicine, we thought we were immortal. At least until the arrival of the Chinese virus that has reduced our expectations by teaching us, perhaps for the first time in decades, to live with uncertainty.
The scale of the drama we are facing is momentous, but Europe's reaction has not been up to the task. Unaccustomed to struggle and sacrifice, for a year and a half now the EU member states have intermittently closed all businesses: from shops to cinemas, from bars to restaurants. Today the light can be glimpsed at the end of the tunnel, but the results given by these slow and late reopenings risk turning out to be insufficient. Also in light of the current international scenario: according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Xi Jinping's China – perhaps even more dangerous than the old USSR – recorded growth of 8.1 percent, exceeding the levels pre- Covid . A fact that should make us think. Is the European Union really thinking of competing and confronting giants like China, Russia and the United States by moving forward at this rate? Can we really sacrifice the economic, political and social future of our continent in the name of the right to health?
Nietzsche thought that reality was governed by two principles, extremely different from each other: the Apollonian, the rational and ordered component of existence, and the Dionysian, the magmatic and chaotic element of reality. According to the German philosopher, the origin of human suffering lies precisely in the refusal of the Dionysian, that is, in the insane claim to exclude pain from our lives. In the last fourteen months, instead of implementing the development, production and purchase of vaccines and the increase in intensive care, European governments have tried to eliminate all risk by choosing lockdown as the main path. Without realizing that "zero risk" does not exist and that, above all, one cannot not live for fear of dying.
The last two years will go down in history as the two-year period of surrender. We have renounced our rights by accepting liberticidal provisions. We have shown ourselves weak in the face of our adversaries (Chinese and non-Chinese) who, rejoicing in our failure, are preparing to dominate Europe. Because yes, thank goodness the vaccination campaign will guarantee the return to a normal life, removing the specter of the pandemic. But the "new world" we will have to deal with will most likely be worse than the one we left.
The post This is why Europe will be defeated by the pandemic: the insane claim of “zero risk” and to exclude pain appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/ecco-perche-leuropa-uscira-sconfitta-dalla-pandemia-la-folle-pretesa-del-rischio-zero-e-di-escludere-il-dolore/ on Wed, 19 May 2021 04:02:00 +0000.