It’s the economy stupid.
I can’t help but fear the long-term negative impact of this experience will be economical. Does this mean I’m more concerned about money than lives? That is a false dichotomy. The truth is poverty can cost as many lives as any virus, and if there are severe economic consequences from this shutdown, many lose their lives due to the effects of poverty.
Small businesses will struggle.
Small businesses will struggle to come back from the shutdown, and the reality is many will never come back. Large corporations, however, have more capital and can survive economic downturns. Look for a Great Consolidation of business as more giant corporations take advantage of the shutdown to buy up innovative small businesses that could not survive.
Uncertainty is the greatest cause of anxiety right now.
No one knows the future, but history gives us a glimpse of the future. I believe history is cyclical in nature because history is rooted in human nature, and human nature is essentially the same regardless of the time or place. When we enter into unprecedented times like this, there is no history or prior events to use as a gauge for how things will turn out. No one is an expert because no one has ever experienced this right now. Consequently, the future seems more unpredictable now than at any other time in my life. I feel like we are staring at a brick wall and no one knows what is on the other side of the brick wall. We have lost all sense of space and time. We don’t know if this coronavirus pandemic will be a blip on the horizon two years from now or if we will look back at March and April of 2020 and think, “those were the good days.” No one knows.
“This is not a shutdown, but a tactical retreat.”
I listened to an episode of The Joe Rogan Podcast with Dan Crenshaw as the guest. When Rogan asked Crenshaw for his take on this current time, he said it reminds him of a tactical retreat. To put it in military terms, it’s what happens when a patrol runs into a barrage of gunfire. No one knows where it is coming from or what is going on, the only instinct is to retreat to a safer place where you can assess the situation and what the enemy is doing and then develop a plan to go back on the offensive against the enemy. That is what we are doing right now. The coronavirus hit us like a barrage of gunfire that pushed us into a tactical retreat. We had to assess what the danger was and the severity of the problem and then begin developing a plan of attack. The first stage was to build up our medical resources then prepare to go on the offensive. When we reopen the country, that is going on offense. Yes, there will be casualties, but wars are not one sitting on defense. It’s time for America to go on the offense against the coronavirus.
What will the church look like after coronavirus?
This is a topic of some debate among the consultant class within the church. Almost in unison, they are warning that the coronavirus shutdown will prove to be a paradigm-changing experience for the church. They are predicting a great increase in the number of bi-vocational and co-vocational pastors as churches struggle financially. They argue that large churches with expansive facilities could find the new paradigm does not depend on facilities, and they will need to repurpose their buildings. They predict newer churches looking to build facilities will struggle to find financing, and the need for facilities will diminish. What do I think? Not sure yet. There is part of me that is skeptical (see thoughts on uncertain future above). I don’t doubt this will have a long-term impact on the church, but I think it is too early to tell if it is genuinely a paradigm-changing impact. I do believe for churches looking to make large-scale changes, this is an opportunity, but that is a topic for more discussion.
The news media in America truly is “the enemy of the people.”
One of the uglier aspects of America this pandemic has revealed is just how arrogant and agenda-driven the activist media is in America. Here is my conclusion, like it or not: the activist media hate America, and they hate you and me. They have moved well beyond bias to serving as the propaganda ministry for those who hate America. If the activist media was a casualty of the pandemic, that would be one of the bright spots to emerge from this challenging time.
Like it or not, the Democrat Party has become the Democrat Socialist Party of America.
Back to the interview with Dan Crenshaw on The Joe Rogan Podcast, I think he nailed it in his description of the Democrat Party in 2020. The Democrats no longer represent the working people of America. They have become a party governed by progressive elites who are driven more by ideology than what is best for working men and women. How did the Democrat Party become a socialist party? It is the result of young people who have been indoctrinated with the values and morals of Marxism and who express their opinions with a lot of emotion and anger. I thought it was interesting what Crenshaw said about Nancy Pelosi. He said 10 years ago, Republicans viewed Pelosi as an extremist in her political positions; today, they view her as a moderate, center-left politician. She is trying to navigate between what many older Democrats see as “common sense liberalism” and the new socialist wing of their party. Again, what has changed? Older Democrats talked a lot about their socialist ideas to woo the younger voters, but they governed from the center. As the Millennials grew into their 30s and started achieving positions of power, the older Democrats realized too late that unlike their generation that could talk the talk but walk a different direction, the Millennials are true believers.
And then there’s China.
For the life of me, I do not understand why the left is so enamored with China. I get that they are a yuuuuge market (use your Bernie Sanders voice), and everyone from Apple to the NBA wants a piece of it, but why are so many willing to unashamedly carry water for China? Again, one of the long-term positive impacts from this shutdown could be a wholesale re-evaluation of our relationship with China. Some have suggested this is the start of a new, much more intense Cold War with China. As one commentator put it, we have discovered that we are at war with China, but China manufactures all of our ammunition. Hopefully, we will see a foundational re-evaluation of every aspect of our China relationship, but Americans need to be ready for what that means to their lifestyle. We all enjoy relatively cheap consumer goods, from 65-inch televisions that cost less than $1000 to everyday household items. It’s all made in China. That same television that’s made in China and sold for less than $1000 would cost three times that amount if it was made in America. It has taken us 20-plus years to entangle ourselves in this mess, and it won’t be easy to detangle the mess, but we need to start the process. If we have learned nothing else from this experience, China is not a good neighbor in the global community.
Tags: China, Coronavirus, Economy, News Media, Socialism, The Church, The Democrat Party