Jose Martinez - Covid-19 and the Transformation of American Society

Jose Martinez, Ph.D.

Jose Martinez, Ph.D.

Academica Press
Washington~London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Martinez, Jose, author.

Title: Covid-19 and the transformation of american society / Jose Martinez

Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2020. | Includes references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020947835 | ISBN 9781680539813 (ebook)

Copyright 2020 Jose Martinez

Dedicated to
Elizabeth, Cristina, and Sara

First things first. Coronavirus is the contagious virus that can lead to COVID-19. COVID-19 is the acronym for the Corona Virus Disease, named in 2019, which can be fatal. The virus is a medical/physiological phenomenon. Yet herein will be discussed the various social factors exacerbating the virus and how the virus itself is causing societal change. The virus is the impetus for substantial social change for the foreseeable future. The societal factors directly and indirectly related to it such as poverty, race, class and other factors will be extensively discussed. The ramifications of the pandemic are extensive. Some might muse about whether the societal and what follows herein is related to the coronavirus. Yes, it is.

In a word, the social change stemming from the ramifications of the coronavirus is significant. It needs to be understood as comprehensively as possible. This is a concise presentation of what is germane to social change from the coronavirus. The virus is not simply a physiologically isolated medical entity. It cannot be separated from a number of societal aspects, try as some may to simply focus on the disease as exclusively relegated to the physiological.

Some brief definitions are in order: Race is not a physiological reality but a set of characteristics at various points in history that society imagines/creates and foists on some groups for particular purposes. Class is ones socioeconomic position in society, though definitions of class have also shifted. Gender is more what a given society has determined to be a set of behaviors and thinking contrived since birth (girls can be as aggressive and boys as emotional as anybody else at younger ages before society channels them in particular directions). Sociology is the large-scale study of society, which will be utilized some.

What follows is not exhaustive. It is essentially, again, a concise (not trite nor ephemeral, though) yet meaningful exploratory introduction to social change brought about by the pandemic. It presages how American society and the world is changing currently as well as thereafter. In practically all facets of life, the U.S. will never be the same. The good ole days are gone. In fact, there never really were good ole days except for some perhaps enjoyed at the expense of others.

In some ways what is occurring is revelatory of what social reality has been. In some ways the structural changes that are occurring are constructive, such as a reconsideration of consumerism, what with jobs much more precarious now and in the future. Since blacks are being affected more negatively due to the socioeconomic situation they were placed in American society, much more of society as a whole now understands them a little more, and others in society now understand each other better as well.

Not constructive as a social change is the further entrenchment of inequality. Nonetheless, as will be seen here, there are renewed efforts to address the inequality. History is being rewritten and upended as we speak. It should go without saying that there is extensive inequality in health care as well as in other aspects of society. The inequality in health care is not an isolated phenomenon. It is part and parcel of what is the case in the rest of society. That will be clearly delineated here, since many shirk from seeing this.

So much so is this the new normal, so to speak, that the older normal that was around for so long in American society is going by the wayside. Simply, most did not even know there was a name for what has been the case (the older normal), namely the theory of postmodernism in particular, as well as similar theories. Too many readers eschew theory. Theory guides us in a particular direction. It is an organizing mechanism for further exploration.

Postmodernism refers to post, what follows after modernism. Modernism refers to the idea of the linear, of things being a particular way that those in power have portrayed. For about the last forty years postmodernism was postulated as being the other way around, formally by theorists but much more informally by most anyone else, that we look at the fragments instead, the individual parts of society and think of it all as language games without much of a reference to reality, that you make of life what you will and are responsible for it, and have ownership of it. In a word, everything was just a personal narrative of experience, ones as good as that of the next person.

Postmodernism ultimately and unfortunately was not just a theory in social sciences but in other areas also, such as literature and architecture. That theory and particularly an offshoot of it, cultural studies, unsuccessfully tried to focus on the subjective experience as only ones individual experience, not that of others in general, as still emphasized in the Dr. Phil shows and Oprah before that, thus obviating the more meaningful macro or large scale patterns of the experiences of many.

Coherence was anathema to pomo, as it was called for short. The actual purpose of pomo thought was to eliminate structural thinking itself in the social sense and eradicate social responsibility, etc., the latter requiring that we looking out for each other, for taxes to support that responsibility as an example, as is the case throughout much of Europe and elsewhere, or even at some points in the history of the U.S.

Well, the coronavirus did what no one person could, and without intent since a virus is not an entity with a conscience, and all in short order. For one thing, among others elaborated further herein, the virus made society think in terms of others (whether they were excited about doing so or not) because of the possibility of infection by others as well. Other related aspects of the virus came swiftly into play. They are also elaborated here. Some, such as blacks, now saw that the socioeconomic circumstances that impinged on their health were factors in their now greater vulnerability from what society had done to them historically, and hence higher rates of infections/deaths for them.

Then blacks realized that they were perhaps not only dying at a higher rate because of that but also, glaringly, because of the long history of aggression against them and killings by police. Martin Luther King was clear about the violence against them and what the overall situation was in the U.S. when he indicated that the U.S. was the main purveyor of violence throughout the world. Blacks already understood that, but the coronavirus contributed to some stark realizations. These are sociohistorical situations. They further realized that, when mitigation efforts were instigated in society to lessen the spread of the coronavirus, their unemployment rate was even higher due to their being thrown out of work and/or it being even more difficult for them to find work when businesses closed and thereafter when businesses opened.

Latinos also have high rates of infection due to the fact that they had to continue working in some jobs that were classified as essential, such in meat and poultry packing, etc., and for income survival purposes continued to work. Some of these Latinos were undocumented workers and therefore did not have much of any rights, were vulnerable, and in a word could not quite refuse to work, alongside their desperate need for income. The income of many in Mexico is dependent on the earnings of these, who remit a sizable amount of their earnings to their family in that country and elsewhere.