Janan Ganesh: “That history is ‘one damn thing after another’ is such a good line, it’s almost a shame it isn’t true. For the most part, history is the sum of all that does not happen. The failure of post-apartheid South Africa to succumb to race war is part of history. The failure of most viruses to shut the world down is part of history. The absence of a nuclear strike since 1945, the continuing non-collapse of the EU: each merits as much study as any actual occurrence.”
“The idea of a historic non-event matters, for we are living through a profound instance of one. By far the most striking thing about the pandemic is how little it has changed politics. Across the world, the state has reigned over excess deaths or curbs on freedom, or both. Few have been toppled in consequence. Few have even been made to sweat.”
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