Spear’s asked Luke Kemp, a research associate at CSER, to help put the threat of Covid-19 into context.
What is your current assessment of Covid-19?
In some ways, Covid-19 has shown that society is more fragile than we often suspect. Our social contract of the modern age is largely based upon the notion that people will be domesticated, work nine to five, do their jobs and follow government orders. In exchange, they receive a safety net and safety from both external threats as well as from health threats. If at any point it seemed that the government could no longer uphold its end of the bargain — that can make things very tumultuous. I think the most interesting and potentially dangerous threat we can see is political disintegration if this social contract is perceived to be unravelling. This could be due to healthcare system impacts, inequality in burdens, infringements on civil liberties and the economic knock on effects.
