Jens, apologies for not replying to this earlier. You raise some good points.
The idea is to use this virus to alter society in a way that is more beneficial to global capitalism.
I don't see, how can a virus be beneficial to global capitalism. I mean consumption is going down, lockdowns mean businesses are going bankrupt, several industries (e.g tourism) are hit extremely hard. Virus can perhaps benefit certain sectors of economy (i.e IT, make everything more digital). But in general? World economy is already in deep recession. Also there are already uprisings and riots in the world due to poor economic situation and unemployment. I think everyone in power would rather prefer "business as usual growth" rather than this trouble.
You touch upon something that I had forgotten to mention, another reason why this virus is abused by the system, and thus disproportionately hyped up: to use it as an excuse for the global recession that was coming anyway due to basically no changes having been implemented since the big crash of 2008.
My contention is that the system is geared towards one thing only: the increase and further concentration of concentrated wealth. "Everyone in power" is premised on the fallacy (IMO) that people are in power. This idea rests on the belief that that human beings are in control of their destiny. This is partially true, but there are entities/phenomena/powers that play a much larger role, especially when it comes to large communities.
Concentrated wealth is such an entity, and it's the one in power. There are pockets of concentrated wealth that are magnetically attracted to each other and try to absorb one another, because concentrated power wants one thing only and that is to become bigger. Mind you, it is not some intelligent, rational or moral being. It's a monster that wants to grow bigger, even if in the long run it destroys itself (which it always ends up doing).
So, when I said 'the idea is to use this virus to alter society in a way that is more beneficial to global capitalism', I actually meant 'beneficial to concentrated wealth'. Global capitalism is what has arisen out of this need for eternal growth, as this is the most efficient way to achieve it.
I view the situation more as the global capitalism is trying to adapt to a bad situation. They know they are going to crash due to ecological crisis, so the totalitarian fascist phase is the last stage of capitalism to try to make a face everything is fine and the economic system could still keep going. But totalitarian system arrives because it is impossible to keep going in the old way. It's an adaptation, they aren't doing it voluntarily. If people can't keep consuming in the system, because the world is falling apart, they have to be kept forcefully there.
That's exactly right, I fully agree. It was interesting to see how the importance of the virus was downplayed at first by politicians - key servants of concentrated wealth - because their thinking was that BAU must be maintained at all costs to feed their master. As you rightly say, this is not possible, and so it took a while for the likes of Boris Johnson to understand which way the wind was blowing. That's when the pendulum swung to the other extreme and COVID-19 became the centre of attention unlike any other event since WW2.
That's because crises are always used to push agendas. Here's a list of things that the abuse of SARS-CoV-2 is meant to achieve through the manipulation of people's genuine fear of death:
1) A massive transfer of wealth, as evidenced by US bail-outs, where both highly profitable and insolvent industries received billions of taxpayer dollars in record time, whereas Congress goes on a holiday when a homelessness pandemic needs to averted.
2) Winning the
War on Populism. Just like terms like 'socialism' and 'conspiracy theory', the word 'populism' has a pejorative connotation attached to it. This didn't happen by itself, as explained in this
interesting interview with Thomas Frank (who has just published a book about it called
The People, No). Anybody criticizing the state's COVID stance and policies, is essentially a populist.
3) A major distraction from the failings of neoliberalism. As said above: SARS-CoV-2 is used as an excuse for the global recession that was coming anyway due to basically no changes having been implemented since the big crash of 2008. Everything is because of the virus.
4) Destroying SMBs, so that real estate can be bought on the cheap and entrepreneurs lose their independence and become wage slaves. Some parts of the economy get hurt, such as retail and the hotel/restaurant business, but they will be replaced with monopolies like Amazon. Instead of going out and buying things, people will have to order them online (cheaper anyway, right). At some point, cash will become obsolete.
5) Increasing control through massive surveillance, controlling people's movements, having the ability to break up protests and lock people up in their homes, under the pretense of 'public health'. Just as with terrorism in the 2000s, a state of constant fear of disease will be maintained to keep people docile and obedient.
I may expand this list (something about Big Pharma should be in it, of course). But one thing is clear to me: All of it is tied to the need for the endless growth and further concentration of concentrated wealth.
As things stand, nothing good will come out of the COVID hype. Its goal is not to save lives or protect people. It isn't meant to increase awareness of how the system caused the virus, helped it spread all around the world and maximized its impact through decades of health degeneration. The lessons that are pushed are 'populism is bad', 'only vaccines can save us', 'billionnaires are wonderful philanthropists' and 'more globalist neoliberalism is the solution to all our woes'.
