Introduction

The starting point for this final chapter is that we, humankind, have played an influential role in causing the COVID-19 pandemic. Some appear to believe that we have just been hit by misfortune, that bad things happen and we can't do much about a strange virus that came out of nowhere. People who hold this view are misguided. In Chapter Two, I explained how the relentless exploitation of people and the planet, an uncaring and thoughtless approach that has dominated modern capitalism for much of the last forty years, has led directly to the appalling situation we now find ourselves in.

Mark Honigsbaum, in his forensic analysis of pandemics during the 20th century, shows how misguided exploitation of the planet has, repeatedly, disturbed the ecological equilibriums in which pathogens reside, and that these disruptions have then caused diseases. Added to this, the massive expansion of factory farming has delivered not only widespread animal cruelty and abuse, but also a rocket boost to the virulence of zoonotic viruses, making them far more dangerous. Pandemics, as well as the global climate catastrophe, arise from the misguided behaviour of human beings: we are the architects of our own suffering.

The good news is that, if human beings caused the pandemic, we can, by modifying our behaviours and our public policies and practices, change things for the future. We can take steps to both reduce the chances of unforeseen calamities happening and, just as important, we can design governance arrangements that will strengthen our capacity to cope much more effectively with future disasters. We can, then, be the architects of a gentler, kinder world, one in which we all tread more lightly on the planet.

In this book, I have argued that the COVID-19 pandemic raises challenges for all societies that go far beyond public health and economics. I have suggested that the central issue that now confronts us is more profound than any particular public policy concern – it is the viability of democracy itself. On the one hand, if we refresh and revitalize our arrangements for democratic governance, then societies can take on the vested interests that continue to exploit people and the planet in an intolerable way.