Posted in: Judaism, World Events
Published on Mar 27, 2020 by Phyllis Chesler
Published by Israel National News
China Article V: We will never be quite the same again.
Oh, where is Dr. Freud when one needs him?
Who would ever have thought that
anything could knock the pandemic of Jew hatred off the front pages?
Well, the Chinese government has managed to do so. All day, every
day, perhaps with the exception of some particularly malevolent media in Iran
or Gaza, most English-language TV broadcasts all, all, focus only on the Wuhan
Virus—the escalating rates of infection and death; the absence of adequate
equipment; the consequences to our economies; tips on keeping safe—on and on,
as if nothing else matters. And, for the moment, nothing else does, the world
has come to a hard standstill.
We will never be quite the same again. Now, countless millions,
all those who do not get sick or who do not die, are experiencing what it is
like to be a shut-in, to be unable to go out, or to go out very often, or
alone, or with ease. Perhaps when this siege is over, able-bodied people will
remember it and reach out with a new kindness to those who have been
permanently left behind.
We will never be quite the same again—and yet: Families who are
now shut in together have probably never before been in such close contact for
so long and with so few reprieves, no dashing into the surf, no walking along
the beach, no amusement park rides. Nothing. Nada. Young children may someday
remember this as a War in which their parents (if they are not doctors or
nurses) were able to stay home; as a memory they may treasure in the distant
future.
We have time-traveled, at least partly, back to previous
centuries, when one worked at home or nearby and did not go far beyond one’s
own village. Were it not for electricity, plumbing, the internet,
live-streaming, and television (how lucky we are!), we might time-travel back
even further, when only a mere handful dared risk long and always dangerous
ocean voyages.
People are saying that divorces
will escalate due to such cramped confinement—perhaps, but the birthrate may
also escalate.
We shall see.
We will never be quite the same again, but now everyone might
better appreciate the fact that child-diarist Anne Frank and seven others (!)
all hid together for two years in a 450-square-foot space in what was known as
the “secret annex.” Anne was murdered by the Nazis when she was fifteen years
old. Only her father, Otto, survived—and he subsequently went about universalizing
and de-Judaizing her diary.
In the mid-1970s, the late Meyer Levin walked with me up and down
the beach in Netanya, imploring me to understand exactly why Otto, together
with Lillian Hellman and “the left-wing Broadway and Hollywood Jews” participated
in this obscene bid for commercial success. I believed him, but for years Levin
was considered a crackpot. Only in the mid-1990s did Cynthia Ozick, in
the pages of The New Yorker, expose this drama-within-a-drama.
All around me, people are terrified of falling prey to the Wuhan
Virus. Some are quite hysterical. One woman, who merely had a cold but had no
fever, was not coughing, and had no trouble breathing, nevertheless told all
her colleagues that her doctor had diagnosed her as “mildly positive” for the
virus—and he did so over the phone. Oh, where is Dr. Freud when one needs him?
One woman seems to have gone a little stir crazy. Laughing, she
proudly old me that she takes walks in the middle of the night, and she
marveled at the deep quiet on the darkened and deserted streets. She is prone
to falling and refuses to use a cane or a walker. I was aghast but remained
silent.
Everyone is also worried about economic free fall. Will small
business owners have to lay off staff? How many? And for how long? How quickly
and how seamlessly will the American government’s two trillion dollar Bill
which just passed actually come to our rescue?
When this is all over, the world has got to hold the Chinese
government fully responsible—economically, legally, socially, criminally, and
morally. Their failure to warn us in a timely fashion has led to great death
and devastation.
This has got to be a wake-up call
in terms of American corporations having outsourced all our manufacturing to
China for the sake of greater profits due to cheaper labor. But now, see how at
risk we are. The Chinese government can withhold pharmaceuticals, medical
supplies, and technologies if the West makes threats or denounces them too
loudly.
I know a successful fashion designer, who for years has been
bemoaning the fact that she’s had to travel to China twice a year for the sake
of her clothing line. She’d been asking why American manufacturers refused to
read the writing on the wall, were willing to shut down plant after plant,
textile mill after textile mill, merely for the sake of more and more profit
for their stockholders with no sense of danger or responsibility to American
workers. And believe me, this woman is a super, uber capitalist; however, she
is also well aware of unintended consequences due to greed.
While diplomacy with China is essential right now, we may have to
rethink and retool our relationship to such a country.
Reposted at New English Press.
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