Summary
Fareed Zakaria: Ten Lessons for the Post-Pandemic World
Ten Lessons for the Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria, a prominent CNN journalist, is not just a journalistic review of the biggest crisis humanity has faced since World War II. A book created in the midst of a pandemic, Ten Lessons may seem like a prime example of a quick journalistic reaction, which it certainly is, but it is much more than that. Zakaria's erudition, analyticalness and criticality when it comes to global political and economic trends are qualities expected from a world-renowned author, but his knowledge of medicine and the simplicity and clarity with which he described the genesis of the pandemic are especially impressive. We have been living with viruses since time immemorial in this dangerous world and they are indeed not the only and most terrible threat. Zakaria also warns against populism, climate change, the uncertainties of the digital age, the American-Chinese rivalry... In his Ten Lessons for the World after the Pandemic, he also looks at the eternal dilemma between state interventionism and the free market. According to Zakaria, this doubt is not ideological, but practical in nature. There are situations in which state interventionism is desirable and necessary, such as the pandemic crisis, and there are also periods when the market should be allowed to generate growth. These and similar doubts are bound by dogma, and the overall picture of the world in Ten Lessons for the World after the Pandemic is dark, perhaps even frightening, but Zakaria reminds us - with no pathos - that there is hope, that as a human species we are still capable of feats, that rational and moral imperatives have not lowered their flags because, as the tenth lesson says: "Sometimes the greatest realists are idealists."
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