The common fact of three world crises – Pierre Haski

In the flow of information that characterizes this summer there are three crises that are treated separately, “in silo”, according to the current technical expression. Yet these crises have a fundamental element in common: they are linked, directly or indirectly, to human choices. They owe nothing to fate, and even less to chance. The three world-wide crises are climate change, the effects of which we see in record temperatures in western North America as well as floods in Germany, Belgium and China; the mass surveillance further explained by the “Pegasus project” and finally the pandemic that has disrupted the world for more than eighteen months, with criticism of the green pass on the one hand and global inequalities in access to vaccines on the other.

These three crises reveal the contradictions of our age, starting with our inability to collectively take the decisions that would allow us, if not to resolve them, at least to mitigate their impact. To make the right choice, it is not enough to have all the data. Consensus is needed, which at the moment appears unattainable. This reality has been evident for some time with respect to the climate crisis, with the impossible balance between “the end of the world and the end of the month”, according to the formula that appeared during the yellow vest crisis in France in autumn 2018. The permanent compromise has made the objectives of the Paris agreements, set just six years ago, already exceeded.

A hardly credible indignation
The same dynamic is found in the increasingly intrusive problem of mass surveillance. In 2013, Edward Snowden unveiled the extent of planetary espionage conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Eight years later, the Pegasus spy software produced by the Israeli private company Nso adds a dimension of targeting and unprecedented intrusion.

The outrage that accompanied the revelations made by a consortium of news outlets would be more credible if the governments they come from did not adopt the same intrusion practices, with or without the help of Pegaus. No one has yet proposed an international ban on this kind of software or pressured the Israeli government to stop providing the most authoritarian regimes with the means to spy on their citizens.

Finally, the emergence of vaccines against covid-19 has highlighted the fragility of our societies, from national to international ones. Social networks certainly have a share of responsibility in spreading skepticism about vaccines. “Facebook kills,” attacked Joe Biden in mid-July, before softening the tone a few days later. But we must still reflect on why so many Americans, French or Germans doubt the effectiveness of vaccines, or worse, adhere to extravagant conspiracy theories. The problem is clearly linked to the crisis of confidence that affects our democracies.

Meanwhile, while Westerners reject the vaccine, other peoples are dying because they don’t have any. Just look at the other side of the Mediterranean, in Tunisia, where it took an out-of-control explosion of the pandemic before millions of doses arrived, from France and other countries. Africa is the poor relative of vaccination, and this undermines the goal of collective planetary immunity, the only tool to overcome the pandemic.

In these three crises, the common element is distrust, in particular that of citizens in the face of political choices, their effectiveness, their transparency and their motivations. This political crisis is widespread all over the world, as evidenced by the populist thrust on all continents.

The phenomenon is at the center of the new rivalry between systems produced by the rise of Chinese totalitarianism, characterized by undeniable effectiveness. Climate, surveillance and the pandemic should be areas in which democracies are able to make a difference, making appropriate decisions on a scientific basis, defending individual freedoms and expressing a solidarity and humanism that are at the heart of self-proclaimed values. The gap between these values ​​and reality feeds mistrust. However, if the 27 countries of the European Union were to equip themselves with the necessary means, the European model would still have the possibility of reinventing itself and overcoming the three current crises.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)