From the 2010 Rockefeller Foundation brainstorming exercise“Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” (pages 18 – 19) (note: this is a .pdf document atrockefellerfoundation.org. Go to startpage.com and type-in the title to access the document):
“In 2012, the pandemic that the world had been anticipating for years finally hit… national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets. Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck and even intensified. In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems—from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty—leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.” Continue reading “The invention of political reality”