Correspondence: Right wing governments' and the pandemic
5 June 2020
Dear Editor,
It seems that the more right wing the government the worse they handle the pandemic.The United States and Britain's slow response and lack of action especially at the beginning of the wave of infections are indicative of ideological conflicts between their individualist philosophy and that of the collective.
Having trust in and respect for your own citizens does not come easily to the British and US ruling class. Health secretary Matt Hancock's mistrustful wrist slapping of people about acting responsibly during lockdown was treating us like children. This has not happened in countries like Germany and France which have had much better statistics because there was more a sense that there was some sort of basic civic duty tothe pe ople. Sure, European and Asian countries have their fair share of governments on the right of the spectrum but this crisis has shown that in other countries there is perhaps less of a tendency to treat their citizens like shit. And this has nothing to do with 'being nicer', but has more to do with being products of history, more often than not histories of colonialism, of genocide, of societal collapse.
It reminds you that Britain hasn't changed much since the industrial revolution.When it comes to despising the working class and the poor the US and UK lead the world and other right wing regimes merely follow in their footsteps and it doesn't come as naturally.There is a debate about China being the biggest 'imperialist' threat to democracy in the present day world but even a country like China has been formed in the shadow of the most successful colonial powers of the last 200 years, the US and the UK.But when in the UK the roof fell in, not even the UK's terrible death rate changed the opinion of 'middle England' - steeped in imperialist pretensions, at least until the Dominic Cummings scandal of the last few days.The working class are sharply reminded of all the humiliations of the class system which is so cruelly highlighted by this pandemic.
Yours,
Angry prole