Topic A: Marx and Covid-19
Diarrhea kills 2,195 children every day—more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Diarrheal diseases account for 1 in 9 child deaths worldwide, making diarrhea the second leading cause of death among children under the age of 5. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/global/programs/globaldiarrhea508c.pdf. Extrapolating these figures, over 800,000 children die each year from diarrhea. By comparison, as of March 25, 2020, total Covid-19 deaths amount to less than 20,000. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/world-map.html and https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200325-sitrep-65-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=ce13061b_2
The appearance of Covid-19 has upended domestic and international relations, including every day life in America in profoundly dramatic ways. Apply Marx’s principles to discuss and debate (agree or disagree, your choice) that the reason for the disparate public treatment and reaction as between Covid-19 and diarrhea) is traceable to: a) Covid-19 is indiscriminating between its targeting of the rich and poor (thus the Ruling Class (i.e., Elites), assisted by the governments which — per Marx ideology, manage their affairs – domestically and internationally, bolt upright and swiftly react in a manner strikingly different from the seemingly tolerant quiet and nonchalance over the drumbeat 2,000+ daily child deaths from diarrhea); and b) Covid-19 threatens the welfare of the working class, upon whom the Elites (Ruling Classes) rely to exploit in order to perpetuate their positions of economic dominance, thus stoking their self-interested alarm.
As Marx observed, the Ruling class, in part, maintain their dominance and position of control through the media. (See e.g., An Introduction to the Sociology of Law, Dragan Milovanovic, p. 86). Marx’s ideology may support an argument the emotional contagion that has swept up the public represents a calculated product and reflection of the Elite’s self-interest. In other words, the Ruling Classes panicked because Covid-19 hits them (and not just the poor), and Covid-19’s damage hits the working classes, whom the Ruling Classes exploit to maintain and perpetuate their own position.
Accordingly, the proposition/ Topic A, includes an invitation to discuss Marx’s ideology to the proposition that the Ruling Class panicked (for self-interested reasons) and by virtue of their dominant position have induced — via media and governmental action, (irrational (?)) mass hysteria/ anxiety, to wit, nowhere is/ was such high-profile concern and governmental/ state reaction evidenced over the daily silent drum beat of 2,000 lost souls, when/ where the victims (of diarrhea) are not functioning cogs contributing to first world economic machines.
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