Social Nationalism

I kind of want to avoid writing only about COVID-19 right now, but then again, a lot of my thoughts are about COVID-19, and this is about clarifying my thoughts, so it's going to happen.

I've been asking a few people what they think the political consequences of this pandemic will be. Generally they answer in terms of the 2020 American presidential election, which is interesting, but a bit short-sighted. I'm speaking more broad strokes, because I think this will likely be the most politically relevant event in my lifetime. To demonstrate the challenge of prediction, here's a tweet with two takes so far.

Another common answer to this question is the correct answer, which is that nobody knows what the world will look like next week, let alone being able to guess the long-term political consequences, but I think these headlines both carry truth. Each piece of news points to a world growing more nationalist and more socialist, which hasn't always been a great thing looking at Europe, and the jury's out on what it will produce this time.

The overarching message seems to be more government - whether at the border or in the economy. Libertarians are struggling mightily to take any solace here, and the only silver lining seems to be that market prices will slightly increase the stock of toilet paper. Is it a good thing for libertarians to drown along with their tiny governments? Maybe. That's all I can offer on any front right now.

And I'm not saying any of this is good or bad. Just an observation at this point.