The 21st century must be a teenager. It thinks it has discovered everything, including death and the pandemic. But the truth is the world has survived worse epidemics. The Black Death in the 14th century killed more than half of all Europeans. Yet out of this suffering, that plague brought better wages and more freedom — although I am not suggesting we should create a pandemic every time we want a better world.
I’ve been up to my ears lately in historical documents about the end of that horrible illness, and as a result, my hypochondria has been acting up. I’ve spent several sleepless nights checking my arms, legs, and even behind my ears, expecting to find big black bubbles surfacing. For now, I’ve survived long enough — at least to predict, if history is any guide, the advent of a new social, economic, and cultural renaissance in the West once we’ve rid the planet of the coronavirus scourge.
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