The world is changed. I feel it in the water.
I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.
Galadriel
There is a prevailing journalistic narrative that the COVID-19 emergency will prove to be the portal to a brave new world of increasingly powerless citizens and increasingly powerful governments. Human beings will find themselves standing alone, trembling and defenceless, before a new kind of tyranny that routinely sacrifices individual freedom for herd security. Authoritarian leaders in the mold of Victor Orban, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will be the ‘new normal’. There is even talk of a new world order with China taking over the hegemonic position.
