World War V: The Coronavirus Is a Battle Between Freedom and Skynet
By Richard Fernandez
When academics were asked to predict the most probable risks to humanity they concluded “human extinction is more likely to result from anthropogenic causes than natural causes”: man, rather than nature, was to be feared. The top candidates were a malign artificial intelligence and a runaway biotechnological event. The Covid-19 crisis may be a biological threat but few anticipated a pandemic could also increase the demand for greater artificial intelligence-powered mass surveillance from a frightened population desperate for safety.
The fear of contagion was compared by Angela Merkel to WWII. “Not since German reunification, no, not since the Second World War has our country faced a challenge that depends so much on our collective solidarity,” she said. Perhaps World War V (for virus) is the better name for it and WWV is as much a competition between systems as WWII was. Authoritarian China, the unapologetic origin of the virus, claims “we can outsurvive the West through our ruthless decisiveness” and showcases its superiority by sending aid to Italy.
Real Clear Politics reports, “China is fighting a propaganda war. Beijing’s war aim is simple: shift away from China all blame for the outbreak … At stake is China’s global reputation, as well as the potential of a fundamental shift away from China for trade and manufacturing.” At stake is the putative superiority of its system to which Trump has responded by calling Covid-19 the “China virus.” Real Clear Politics continues:
Chinese propaganda mouthpieces have launched a broad array of attacks against the facts, attempting to create a new narrative about China’s historic victory over the Wuhan virus. Chinese state media is praising the government’s “effective, responsible governance,” but the truth is that Beijing is culpable for the spread of the pathogen around China and the world. Chinese officials knew about the new virus back in December, and did nothing to warn their citizens or impose measures to curb it early on.
By “effective, responsible governance” is meant the hardcore population-control measures and AI-powered surveillance that many Western journalists have come to admire so much. Time says of Italy:
“This isn’t China, and the imposition can only last up to a certain point and must be justified by questions of public order and public health,” … And yet for Chinese nationals living in Italy, the government measures failed to impress.
“You call this a lockdown?” was the general sense of the WeChat social media group that Susan Gao belongs to along with other Chinese women living in Italy.
full story at https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/world-war-v/