The COVID war
I’ve been reading a book by Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel. Kaufmann’s discussion of the role of the classical prophets is an important addition to our investigation of the prophets through the insights of Abraham Heschel. Soon we will begin an in-depth study of Kaufmann’s work on my other web site (ivebeenskipped.com). Today, as I reflected on a passage in Kaufmann’s work, I thought about the Western world’s utter lack of historical perspective during the present COVID crisis. Before I draw some conclusions, notice what Kaufmann writes concerning the wars that occurred between the time of Ahab to Jeroboam II (875-854 to 784-744 B.C.E.).
Like all wars of attrition, they impoverished the bulk of the nation, while giving the opportunity to a few elements of the ruling class to amass great wealth. These war profiteers bought out the lands and the houses of the poor masses. Many persons were forced into slavery; the rest became a miserable proletariat. The famine, drought, plague, war, and captivity that harassed Israel in those days (Amos 4:6 ff.) were thus capped by the gravest evil—social dissolution.[1]
Do you remember another biblical time when the masses were ultimately impoverished and enslaved because of market failure? How about Joseph? During the seven years of the plague, Joseph accumulated for Pharaoh, first, the money of the people, second, their livestock, third, their lands, and finally themselves, slaves to royalty in order to purchase food to live. From my perspective, even if this were not a part of the divine plan in Genesis, the story tells me that a “global” crisis was used by the ruling party to destroy the livelihoods of the people, resulting in a complete separation between those who had and those who had not. At the end of the plague in Egypt, all the economic power was in the hands of the few (remember that Joseph did not take anything from the priestly class).
Kaufmann’s reminds us that the attrition that occurred during the reigns of Israelite kings produced the same economic consequences. The miserable poor grew, the rich got richer, so much so that it became impossible to bootstrap yourself out of poverty. The prophets clearly recognized this as a great evil.
Now some personal conclusions:
COVID is a war. It is not a war about health. The use of masks, mandated insolation, potentially mandated vaccines, restriction of travel, etc. are really the cover for a war on the middle class. The rich and powerful will take advantage of the fact that thousands of small businesses will not survive continued “lockdown” environments. Whole industry segments will cease to exist. The rich will not be grossly affected in this. They have the financial and political power to escape COVID madness. But for most of the world, COVID spells the end of their dreams of economic progress—and, I believe—intentionally so. This crisis, manufactured or not, is a way for the powerful to get more power, a way for them to satisfying their addiction for control. It will have the same effect at the wars of attrition have always had, that is, to reset the economics of the world so that some will have significant gains while most will lose.
Biblical history demonstrates what we all feel but can’t quite articulate. Something much bigger than medical caution is at play here. There is an implicit power grab in the works, and the longer the sheep stay confined to the pens, the most devastating the outcome will be. Whether or not this is the hand of God (like Joseph in Egypt) or simply the manifestation of man’s evil (like Ahab), COVID is not simply a medical pandemic. Its real destruction is not measured by counting the dead, as tragic as that may be. The real cost is revealed in the ability of one group to enslave all others by arbitrary rules for living motivated under the pretense of fear.
We will see. It takes a long time to gain historical perspective. Joseph and Ahab could teach us a few things if we bothered to read them and think about it. But most people won’t. They will march dutifully in step with the instructions of the powerful until one day they wake up to a new reality. The government owns them.
[1] Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, p. 347.
