Doom: Politics of CatastropheBy Niall FergusonPenguin, 496 pagesHumanity’s brush with mortality has always had a surreal touch. But this is not the first time medical science and human progress have been found too inadequate to meet the challenge. For example, he points out that Covid-19 hit many Western countries hard but could do little damage in Taiwan or South Korea. In most cases of nations’ failure to measure up to the challenge of the pandemic, Ferguson finds a manipulative bureaucracy leading the political masters down the garden path. Perhaps a society living in the perpetual fear of Doomsday would pave the way, in Ferguson’s words, for a “global catastrophe – totalitarianism”.

Source: Indian Express July 04, 2021 00:45 UTC