Powerlessness

These past few weeks have left us in a state of powerlessness. COVID-19 has caused many to work from how, and myself included, many college campuses to close for the rest of the semester and switch to online learning methods. A lot has changed in the past few weeks and it was fast without an end in sight. Coincidentally, powerlessness is the theme of what we have read this week for class.

I would like to start off with a quote from a book called The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner, “In some ways, how a society does or does not respond to its most powerless people is a direct measure of it’s vulnerability to the power paradox. By attending to the needs of the powerlessness among us, we can use power for the good and contribute to society in enduring ways”(139). I think this a really good quote when it comes to analyzing how our government is handling the COVID-19 situation. This situation has really highlighted the United State’s lack of health care support system for lower-income people. It has also highlighted the emphasis on how our “leader” President Trump thinks about people and the economy. He thinks they are extendable for economic gains. No human life is extendable, let me be perfectly clear on that. But this demonstrates the vulnerability in the American political system that completely ignores those who are not in positions of power. Or most of the population of the United States.

Last post I did not do an analysis of the UN at Geneva’s instagram page. This was due to my own feelings of powerlessness after finding out that I would not be returning to UMF for classes after spring break. When looking at their instagram it seems quite normal until March 14th in which they announce that people have tested positive for COVID-19 at their office and people will begin to work at home (post link here). After that there are few mentions of COVID-19 other than how quiet it is there when it is usually pretty busy. However their twitter and facebook have been quite active in response to COVID-19. They are posting things from The World Health Organization, something that I believe has been trending due to COVID-19. Even tho0ugh COVID-19 is an international problem, I do not think the UN at Geneva will trend simply because they are not a global health organization. However, they are a trusted organization so they will spread information to help combat the COVID-19 crisis.