The feeling of fear, which a person alone is unable to cope with the situation it causes, is the strongest feeling in man. At the same time, the state is the highest form of organization of a people and is the only choice and belief that only that as an institution can protect the lives and survival of the citizens of the society it serves in cases of war or pandemics.
At the same time, however, the citizens’ faith in the state that it will solve all their problems while giving them allowances to live is regarded as a socialist-communist choice/system, which has ideologically collapsed in European culture.
At the same time, the restriction of the state and its minimal participation in social and economic activity respectively forms the basis of liberal ideology in Western societies.
For this reason, only in cases of war, there are-allowed by Western societies a restriction of individual freedoms. Although there is currently a pandemic worldwide, at the same time there are pandemic deniers as well as strong reactions (social unrest) in many countries characterized by the liberal notion of freedom of the individual e.g., USA, UK, EU (Netherlands, France, Germany, etc.).
Authoritarianism as a means of governance is an abomination for the liberal political class. That is why China’s authoritarian response to the pandemic has succeeded, while the EU has failed to control the spread of the pandemic on the ground that its political class and their societies are turning away from authoritarianism.
This fact, that China succeeded with its applied authoritarianism and the EU has failed something that can be seen not only by the drama of the ever-increasing loss of life and the tragic impact on economies but is seen as undermining liberal principles that the West has countered towards the communist bloc.
Essentially, the freedoms of the individual, which are the essence of Western liberalism as a model of governance, are being tested.
What needs to be clarified is that in order to have liberal governance, freedom and the living of the individual within a favoured and prosperous society, it is the essence of the principle of the functioning of the state to impose – in extreme conditions such as war (on the territory of the country), pandemic, uncontrolled social unrest with a view to the destruction of the state – measures for which they will protect the citizen and the existence of his own state so that he in the first place protects his life , secondly not to be enslaved by defeat in war or by internal revolution (French revolution – majority of French people) etc.
It is only in this way that the security of all citizens and the state is achieved. It is therefore good not to confuse and compare China’s cases with the EU, UK, and US, respectively. Authoritarianism seems when you cannot express your opinion as a citizen, tell the truth about political events when you cannot complain about a better tomorrow.
The problem in the EU and the US is that this is presented in reverse to reduce political costs. More specifically, the initial underestimation of the problem of the spread and mortality of the crown by both President Donald Trump and the presidency of Von der Leyen, respectively.
The relaxation of the first measures by removing them in the summer months in order not to “fatally” affect economic activity led to the existence of a second and third and possibly future fourth wave of spread of the pandemic.
To reduce the political costs of failing to manage the pandemic, the political classes in both the EU and the US claim that liberal ideology does not allow them to implement authoritarian measures as China has done.
The fact that they (the governments of the West) then implemented authoritarian measures to limit the spread of the pandemic, but after it had spread like fire, and as a natural consequence they were unable to contain it has nothing to do with liberalism and its principles.
It is purely a matter of western governments failing to manage this problem because they have underestimated it from the outset, and it is not appropriate to use its liberalism and ideology to cover up behind it their failures to remain in power.
