Somatosphere: Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer

Don't Fight the Future, article by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, author of Theory of the World to Come

Can social theories forge new paths into an uncertain future?

The current pandemic is exposing clear, well-documented problems in the American health care system and health care systems around the world. It’s also exposing the deep problems of in-person voting requirements, gerrymandering, and the structure of American electoral politics. The profit motive in American market capitalism is causing strains both among our leaders, who see their reelection tied to economic stability, and for hospitals, who are overspending to procure necessary medical equipment as a feature of manufactured demands. It might be tempting to consider the current situation as just a medical one and that changing how medical institutions works in the United States would be enough to address future pandemics. But it’s clear that American health care is an outgrowth of a much deeper, broken system. 

 

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