Federico Dominguez
The Uprising of the Pandemials
Human Cycles and the Decade of Turbulence
Editores Argentinos
Table of Contents
HALF TITLE
| Domínguez, FedericoThe uprising of the pandemials : Human cycles and the decade of Turbulence / Federico Domínguez. - 1a ed - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : Editores Argentinos y hnos. , 2021.Libro digital, Amazon KindleArchivo Digital: descargaISBN 978-987-47882-2-11. Ecología. 2. Pandemias. 3. Geopolítica. I. Título.CDD 577.09 |
© 2020, Federico Dominguez
© 2020, Editores Argentinos
Photography: Florencia Castillo
Cover design: Gonzalo Lercari
Translation: Lucas Martinez and Tara Sulllivan
Book design: Gustavo Lencina
Editores Argentinos
www.eeaa.com.ar
Primera edición en formato digital: diciembre de 2020
Versión: 1.0
Digitalización: Proyecto451
Queda rigurosamente prohibida, sin la autorización escrita de los titulares del “Copyright”, bajo las sanciones establecidas en las leyes, la reproducción parcial o total de esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, incluidos la reprografía y el tratamiento informático.
Inscripción ley 11.723 en trámite
ISBN edición digital (ePub): 978-987-47882-2-1
For Flor
INTRODUCTION
“This is the most dangerous time for our planet.”
–Stephen Hawking, December 2016
Liberty has been rare in human history. Until the arrival of modern liberal states, people had little to no rights and lived mainly in rural areas of extreme poverty. This began to change with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the British Parliament put a limit on the monarchy and assured a series of rights, laying the groundwork for individual liberties, economic growth, and the rise of the liberal state as we know it. One century later, the American and French Revolutions consolidated and solidified the process begun in the United Kingdom.
Liberalism, the founder of the modern world, is a doctrine that promotes liberties –civil and economic– and opposes absolutism and conservatism by stating that all human beings hold the same moral value and rights. It is a commitment to human dignity, small government, individual liberties, science, debate, and constant reform in the pursuit of human progress. Modern liberal states led humanity into a cycle of increasing prosperity rooted in technological advances, freedom, democracy, capitalism, and an uninterrupted drop in poverty. For developed countries, the most prosperous period came after World War II, during which people from every social background could aspire to a good job, affordable housing, and quality education to help them progress.
During those years of prosperity (1945–1980), the greatest achievement was meritocracy, a set of assured rights paired with an economic environment that allowed anyone who worked hard to achieve economic prosperity. Meritocracy is a political system in which economic assets and political power are distributed based on talent, effort, and achievement, rather than inherited wealth or social class. The ideal of pure meritocracy is challenging: there will always be those who are dealt a better hand for economic, cultural, or even generational reasons. However, the system’s goal is to guarantee a baseline of opportunities that will allow greater social mobility.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the culmination of the cycle of increased prosperity and expansion of liberties that had begun more than two centuries earlier. A period of relative stagnation followed this milestone. It expanded worldwide and continues to this day. Currently, liberalism is dominated by exclusive technocratic elites who have created a complex system that can only be exploited by a select few and distances citizens from their governments. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the absence of an adversary led liberal governments to lose their way; they stopped taking care of the common people, stopped investing in science, and entered an era of disenchantment. Governments are ultimately made up of human beings, many of which adopted the highly individualistic and less collective spirit that became the hallmark of
