The Epidemic of Rage

Laurie Garrett,

a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,

was prescient not only about the impact of H.I.V.

but also about the emergence and global spread of more contagious pathogens,

such as the novel corona virus that causes covid-19.

She is now predicting

worldwide

‘collective rage’.

This ‘collective rage’ is now manifesting itself in the reaction against the vicious murders, by police,

of George Floyd,

and many other people of color.

This rage

is first manifesting as a storm tide of protest against

chronic,

systematic racism.

Because of this racism

Afro-Americans in the United States

are three times more likely to die of Covid-19

than white people.

Yet,

collective rage

is just beginning.

The next wave of rage,

will be about the rich

getting much richer

as everybody else

becomes

destitute,

sick

or dead.

If America enters the next wave of corona virus infections

“with the wealthy having gotten somehow wealthier off this pandemic by hedging, by shorting, by doing all the nasty things that they do,

and we come out of our rabbit holes and realize,

‘Oh, my God,

it’s not just that everyone I love

is unemployed

or underemployed

and can’t make their maintenance

or their mortgage payments

or their rent payments,

but now all of a sudden

those jerks

that were flying around in private helicopters

are now flying on private personal jets

and they own an island

that they go to

and they don’t care

whether or not

our streets are safe,’

then I think we could have

massive political disruption,” says Garrett.

“Just as we come out of our holes and see what 25 percent unemployment looks like,” she said,

“we may also see what

collective rage

looks like.”

It’s happening.

U.S. billionaires saw their fortunes soar

by,

at least,

$434 billion

during the nation’s lockdown between mid-March and mid-May.

The G.O.P./KKK’s tax cuts were about giving billions to the billionaires,

and increasing the national debt by $1.9 trillion.

And now,

the G.O.P/KKK is blocking emergency spending that is the only thing that can prevent tens of millions of Americans from becoming

destitute

– within a couple of months.

“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it,” Donnie P.P. Pussygrabber told Playboy Magazine months later.

“Then they were vicious,

they were horrible,

but they put it down

with strength.

That shows you the power of strength.”

That is the way that Donnie P.P. Pussygrabber would like to deal with collective rage.

The only thing he is saying to the protesters

is that all the problems will go away

when it’s business-as-usual,

again.

And yet,

business-as-usual

is the problem.

Because Donnie P.P. Pussygrabber is president,

the United States with four percent of the world’s population

has twenty five percent of Covid-19

infections

and deaths.

Because Donnie P.P. Pussygrabber is president

the United States will feel the full force of collective rage.

There will be massive political disruption.

And the rage will not end

until business-as-usual

definitively

ends.