If Everything Has Changed, Why Such a Focus on Bailing Out Capitalism? The Somber Reality Underpinning Covid-19
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If Everything Has Changed, Why Such a Focus on Bailing Out Capitalism? The Somber Reality Underpinning Covid-19 Paul R. Carr 1 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Keywords Democracy capitalism . Covid-19 . Pandemic . Economy . Social justice . Social
solidarity
Introduction Everything seems out of whack, and we are not sure where to turn, what to touch, when to move, and how to get out of this. The dire, catastrophic, dystopian reality of people being infected, contaminated, falling ill, and dying is real, almost too real. At the same time, lots of folks insist that it is hoax, a conspiracy, that it is not as bad as people think. Images of military trucks carrying corpses to their final resting place in Italy are juxtaposed with thousands of young university students having the time of their lives, together, in a party-mode, on the beaches in Florida. No one is sure how it will end as many or most of us stay at home, self-distancing, self-quarantining, and self-reflecting on what it all means. I’m thinking a lot these days about the priorities, resources, decision-making, and political handling and framing of the Covid-19 pandemic in real time. Of course, what I/we say and think today will most likely change tomorrow. But there are signposts, historical knowledge, empirical research, and lived experience to help us consider what is really going on. How has democracy fared so far? I’m thinking of the normative, representative, hegemonic democracy that we all know, live, and experience, the one with constrained elections, limited political parties, corporatized media jingoism, neoliberal education, and weakly encouraged citizen participation outside of the prescribed framework (see Carr and Thésée 2019).
* Paul R. Carr [email protected]
1
Département des sciences d l’éducation, Université du Québec en Outaouais, 283, Boulevard Alexandre-Taché, C.P. 1250, succursale Hull, Gatineau, Québec J8X 3X7, Canada
Postdigital Science and Education
I consume far too much mainstream media and am confronted with and by it even when I do not consume it. It is everywhere; the ideas, concepts, personalities, and messages are disseminated widely, broadly, swiftly, and unquestionably throughout all platforms, infused into family discussions, community dialogue, and political discourse, and then pushed through the educational meat grinder. Offering alternative notions, assumptions, questions, and realities is often met with stares of incredulity and stupefaction. Not by everyone, of course, and there is enormous solidarity and wonderful, transformative work, engagement, and change happening around the world. But the formal sectors—the fundamental governmental structures, the international organizations, and the education systems—are also (or should be) required to create a more meaningful, critically engaged democracy.
Covid-19 and the Economy I’m particularly interested at this time in how the economy, despite clearly obvious health efforts, concerns, and evidence, continues to shape, pervade, and overarch the context of the
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