Tuesday open thread: It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

I've had many a conversation with my boss over the past week, and the thing he keeps repeating is this: This is so surreal.

This is the first global pandemic of the social media age. We're watching it in real time. We're in the middle of it, but we're also voyeurs. We can see, in real time, how Italians and Chinese are coping, or not coping, with the outbreak. We're the subjects of our own news reports.

Even with Ebola or H1N1 we weren't as interconnected as we are now. We see our favorite film stars quarantined. Instagram and Twitter relay to us every dip and turn of the epidemic. We're watching the greatest world-historical event of the 21st century—greater than 9/11, greater than the financial crash—unfold before our eyes. We have intimations that this pandemic will rewrite the rule books. In the US, economists from both sides of the aisle are calling for a massive stimulus package, including checks of $1000 going to each American, a prototype for universal basic income. In a form of a tiny virus, human society may be on the verge of epochal change. To say this is heady stuff would be an understatement.

The virus is highlighting the shortcomings of political orders around the globe. Some countries—like Germany and South Korea—are going from strength to strength. Meanwhile, the world's last empire is flailing like a wounded giant, central government practically abdicating responsibility and local officials taking up the slack.

We will be asking hard questions after this pandemic has receded. How were we so unprepared? How can we avoid such chaos in the future?

These are just a few thoughts strung together over coffee. We're living in monumental times, as impactful as in the days after World War II, which likewise remade the world order.

Stay safe, everyone.