Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness
For over a year, the American establishment and media borg have ostracized anyone who dared to connect the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic with the Chinese military-sponsored, level-4 biosafety Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Then, suddenly and without apologies for their past demagoguery, “journalists” and “experts” concede that the nearby Wuhan lab may well be the most likely genesis.
Why the abrupt change?
Donald Trump is no longer president.
How does the fact that China is a “shame” culture factor into all this. The mere fact that the virus originated in China brings shame. If it came from a lab in Wuhan, that is an enormous loss of face. In a “shame” culture, doesn’t such a snafu require going to whatever lengths necessary to save face? Is the idea of “saving face” not considered a driving force behind CCP actions these days?
NOTE: Everything that was a vice under President Trump is now a virtue under the current..oh, what shall I call it?
Certainly not an “administration”. That would imply some sort of competence or acceptance of responsibility
for their multiple screwups.
Your article about the virus (June 18) is very clear and to the point. There are some speculations to add at some future time.
These two items are clearly speculative, but do not require great leaps of thinking. What if the virus were stronger?
The research, partly supported by US dollars could easily go in that direction.
Secondly, what if Trump had not taken action as soon as he did? We could be as bad off as India.
These are not crazy unrealistic ideas. We may look back and call ourselves lucky!
Re: A Chinese Lab Virus? So What Now?
I’m sure all of those administrators and staff members that admonished you rushed forward with their apologies.
“Washington strategists are no doubt gaming all these rumors and unthinkables.”
Whew, now I can sleep at night.
But it’s actually far worse than that. Virtually the entire military, intelligence, bureaucratic state has been turned against (“weaponized” is the popular term) people who voted for Donald Trump. That would be about half the country.
In “normal” times, this would be terrifying: an unmistakable sign of the nearing end of our almost a quarter of a millennium experiment with democratic republicanism (in itself thousands of years in the making.)
Within the context of what Professor Hanson has described in his article, it’s irrational and suicidal. Not adjectives you want associated with those who govern and are supposed to be protecting us.
“It is almost a law of history that the same wealth that generates a civilization announces its decay.”
Will Durant