The Ugly Truth of a Pandemic and the Logic of Downturn

Wendland-Cook is proud to announce that over the next several weeks we will feature responses to our current public health, political, ecological, and economic crisis of COVID-19. Joerg Rieger, Founder and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program will start the series, followed by responses from Professors Rosetta Ross (link here), Kwok Pui-Lan, Jeremy Posadas, and others.

April 9, 2020

Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice

“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is the not exception but the rule.” Walter Benjamin

The traumas associated with global pandemics may be once-in-a-lifetime events for some, but they have the potential of nudging all of us to see the world in new ways and to change it. While no one knows for sure how bad things will get with COVID-19, let’s acknowledge for the moment that they are not great: In early April of 2020, tens of thousands have died around the globe due to the novel coronavirus, the United States are headed towards an unemployment rate of more than 30 percent according to the Fed, and the stock market is down about a third of its value. Already on March 13, President Trump was forced to declare a national emergency, changing course from his earlier attempts to downplay the situation.

Towards the end of the last downturn of the global economy, in a 2009 book, I suggested the perspective of what I called the “logic of downturn.” My point was that situations of crisis can help us develop a clearer sense of what the world really looks like, for better or worse. Between 2007 and 2009, we could have learned a lot about how the system works from those who lost the most during the Great Recession, and from the broader effects on the proverbial 99 percent who have to work for a living. Few of these lessons have remained in the collective psyche, although movements have continued to address the realities of downturn, including the Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, immigrant rights, and climate justice movements.

It is still too early to tell whether what happened in the aftermath of the Great Recession is going to repeat itself. After 2009 any semblances of the logic of downturn were quickly suppressed and what was at one time considered a state of emergency that required drastic action was reclassified as an unfortunate exception. As markets and stock indexes recovered, aided by gigantic bailouts supporting financial institutions and corporations, an exuberant logic of success took over. This seemingly made thoughts of downturn obsolete. Financial capitalism was seen as the savior to such an extent that even those who disagreed with it and pointed out its moral shortcomings—among them a few theologians at major universities—did not feel they could dispute its success.

In truth—and this is the ugly truth that pandemic and downturn make visible again—the consequences of the Great Recession have stayed with much of the population over the years, made worse by systemic fault lines linked to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status. While the world’s stock markets kept rising consistently until February 2020, the majority of communities never fully recovered, including religious communities and many theology schools. Moreover, many of the 99 percent who have to work for a living were abruptly awakened to the fact that even the jobs that came back after the Great Recession were not of the same quality than those that were lost. Despite the rising tide of the economy, only a few boats were lifted while most have been stranded on the shore.  That pattern is being reinforced now as the Fed is providing $1 trillion Dollars a day to shore up financial institutions, while individuals earning less than $75,000 will receive a one-time relief payment of $1,200 Dollars.

Amidst pandemic and downturn, we now have another opportunity to discover that the state of emergency is not the exception but the rule, as the Jewish thinker Walter Benjamin realized at the height of German fascism in 1940. Those who have already died and many more who will yet die, their families, and their communities, will not let us forget so easily. Those who lost their livelihoods, their families, and their communities, may want to forget when the worst is over, but they would do well to remember who typically wins and who loses in our current economic system. Those who are down on their investments may feel they have less to worry about, as capitalist markets have usually recovered (at least up to now)—yet the many who depend on their investments for making ends meet or as nest eggs for retirement will find it more difficult to continue with business as usual as they will have to keep working long past their retirement age.

 
The more people are awakened to these stark realities, however, the more there is a chance that things will not go back to business as usual. Already we are beginning to sense who the essential workers, those without whom we cannot survive, really are: the food, farm, grocery, transportation, janitorial, cleaning, and of course, health care workers. Many of them are beginning to make their voices heard. Just like Rome was not built by certain Roman emperors, so our cities and our lives are not ultimately built by politicians (of either party), CEOs, or financial wizards. Without working people—in particular the ones now called essential—the emperor has no clothes and even financial capitalism is nothing but a house of cards. Working people from all walks of life should never let the executive class forget it again. That’s where the power of those who have to work for a living lies. 

The state of emergency and the logic of downturn, which are not the exceptions but the rule, teach us that we need to look elsewhere in the world for what truly matters and for what can save us. This will help us shake off not only false rulers but also false gods who demand sacrifice from the many to shore up the power of the few. Those who continue to search for God might be surprised as well.

Note: I want to thank Ph.D. students Francisco Garcia (theology, Vanderbilt University) and Annika Rieger (sociology, Boston College), as well as Vanderbilt Divinity MTS student Elizabeth Welliver for their valuable feedback.