We are live-streaming video of our navels in a failed state, pausing occasionally to read the New York Times or The Atlantic

George Packer:

We’re faced with a choice that the crisis makes inescapably clear. We can stay hunkered down in self-isolation, fearing and shunning one another, letting our common bond wear away to nothing. Or we can use this pause in our normal lives to pay attention to the hospital workers holding up cellphones so their patients can say goodbye to loved ones; … We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death. After we’ve come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone.

SF Gate:

Nearly 1,800 people were tested for COVID-19 in the small California coastal town of Bolinas in a major, privately funded UCSF study. … Two Bolinas homeowners funded the $400,000 study.

What „we“ does Packer imagine? Do the Bolinas „homeowners“ believe that the alternative to solidarity is death? Is injustice lethal to the Bolinas homeowners?

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