Who is responsible

Who should be blamed for a pandemic event? Several choices:

• the virus
  • only the stupid blame a stone for hitting their feet
• first patients got sick
  • they don't even know what is happening
• all governments failed to stop the virus
  • officials who tried to cover up the severeness of the situation due to cowardliness and ignorance: China
  • they couldn't foresee its severeness: all governments but unnecessary and impossible
  • ineffective political system leading to the failure of early warning: China
  • ineffective political system leading to the failure of implementing effective health instructions: the U.S. typically
  • ineffective political system leading to the failure of lock-down: all governments but to a different extent
• patients who got sick because they refuse to follow government health instructions
  • arrogance and ignorance
• politicians who try to gain interest through criticizing political rivals' failure of handling the pandemic event
  • despicable but unrelated
• brainwashed people who blame innocent groups of people for the pandemic event
  • ignorant but unrelated
• governments who try to blame rival governments for not doing good enough
  • despicable but still unrelated

Imagine if the virus started in different countries.

If it starts in a first-world country with fully developed health systems and an effective government to ensure early lock-down (which excludes almost every country), the pandemic situation will not happen.

If it starts in a country with health systems developed enough and a government responsible enough, the pandemic event still happens but authoritarian governments are likely to do the best due to effective lock-down, and no country will be blamed, nor praised.

If it starts in a country with an undeveloped health system, the pandemic event still happens and authoritarian governments are likely to do the best due to effective lock-down, and no country will be blamed because people will not even know the origin by the time it has been discovered.

If it starts in China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, etc. and the early lock-down worked, the governments will be blamed for trespassing human rights. If it didn't work, they will be charged with every possible excuse as you have seen.

Sins of government

There are sins to government as every proper thing they have done are deemed as granted, while no mistake is allowed due to its governing position. A government who does as little as possible will make the least mistakes, but unnecessarily mean it is the best government. Nonetheless, such a kind of government is favorable to democratic political systems due to the least mistakes.

Do keep in mind though, always in democratic countries governments are not the only ones in the governing position, so most of the time they are only a scapegoat of public fury when bad things happen so that the true boss behind remains untouched. While in authoritarian countries the government will always have to face the public fury directly.

In other words, the current democracy in most worlds is just authoritarian with extra steps. Public supervising of government works much better in democratic countries, does not necessarily mean it also works for the true ruling power behind the government. Though it leaves an impression on people that public supervising doesn't work with authoritarian governments, the ruling power has to face it directly. The logic is the same though: keep supervising away from the ruling power.

There are and will always be conflicts between the ruler and the ruled, as leadership has been proven indispensable throughout human history, while modern democratic and modern authoritarian governments are just two different models to solve such conflicts.

The more authoritarian the government, the less freedom of its citizens, the more resources it can gather, the better it can handle alien threats like a war, a pandemic, etc., and has more potential (but not promised) to provide better public services.

For most of the ruled, they don't even get a choice of the government models. To some degree, all modern society is just slavery with extra steps, as Morty suggests. After all, some of the extra steps don't promise a better outcome, it just gives you a better feeling of being a slave, which is essential for remaining productive, as a slave.

Take no mistake, it means a lot to have a better feeling while being a slave, if nothing else can be done about it.

Marxism claims no authority at the end of social evolution, while I remain skeptical as such society will be vulnerable to any kind of alien threats as there is nothing to effectively bind people together. In the end, there might be no limit on how productive a human being can be, but there is still a limit to human nature.

Maybe in another form of life though. Can't promise.