Xi ad Portas

   

In psychodynamics projective  identification is a mechanism, where not only one projects feelings and characteristics onto somebody else, but also that the other person accepts the projected as part of him- or herself.

 

This mechanism seems to be in play in int’l politics of present declining modernity. The big powers accuse each other of having certain characteristics. The accused most often deny having this feature, but at the same time they often in their acts confirm that they are as their opponents postulate. Instead of proving that the accusations are wrong, it is as if the accused through their acts say: We will prove you right.

 

Just to take a few of the numerous examples we have the suppression of the work of opposition groups and of NGO’s with foreign links in Russia and the imposition of disproportionate security laws in Hong Kong. The United States has the last four years  under Donald Trump and the Republicans worked very hard to prove that the accusations from the opponents (and the fears from the friends) are right. Just to take a couple of examples we have the ending of weapon control treaties and the measures against Chinese IT companies and one of their leaders.

 

On the issue of China this line is continuing under the new US administration. The animosity against this new rival is the only thing which unites the madly polarized parties in America. The anti-Chinese sentiments in the United States are reaching hysterical levels. The Trumpists presently taking over the Republican party are reviving the conspiracy theory about the Corona virus coming from the lab in Wuhan. And this in ways which are often beyond any reality. If somebody accuses Dr. Faucy of having hired the lab in Wuhan to produce more dangerous Corona viruses it is approaching pathological paranoia.

 

As we know, the mild version of the lab leak theory assumes that SARS-CoV-2 is a man-made virus which escaped from the lab by accident. The virus is supposed to have been produced through manipulation of another bat virus using  “gain of function” research deliberately or accidentally amplifying a related virus. This might sound like a reasonable idea. But RaTG13, the closest known relative of the Corona-virus in the pandemic has only 96.2 % genetic overlap with the virus causing the illness. This is a gap of almost 4 % which according to scientists cannot be bridged, neither by gain of function techniques nor by a pure accident creating mutations in a lab. Similar arguments exclude manmade alterations of the earlier suggested bat viruses ZC45 and ZXC21as the origin of the pandemic. Thus these versions of the lab escape theory must be discarded. 

 

Therefore to maintain the lab leak idea, it is necessary to assume a longterm diabolic plan aiming at genetically producing the Corona-virus now ravaging the globe, an almost impossible task. It would also be necessary that this genetic alteration was done without leaving traces, which is also extremely difficult.

 

But with the present cold war hysteria in the United States everything about China is believed, even the idea of such a farfetched diabolic plan. The situation is very comparable to the conspiracy theories in Rome about the competitor Carthage 2100 years ago. These theories even continued after the defeat of Cartage and ultimately lead to its deliberate destruction by Rome.

 

In this atmosphere it is no wonder that hate-crimes against Asians are on the rise in America, even though attacking Asians in general because of China is just as stupid as attacking Jews in general because of Israel. What about an upgrade of your educational system?

 

Placed in a such anti-Chinese environment and confronted by grotesque  theories it is no wonder that Dr. Faucy and President Biden to fend off accusations of complicity or appeasement publicly support further investigation off the Wuhan lab theory.

 

Often humans use a rule of thumb, a heuristic saying that the truth is somewhere in the middle between the opposite viewpoints. In their statements concerning the lab theory Biden and Faucy follow this rule. In many cases it is a good heuristic. But the truth is not in the middle between a paranoid conspiracy theory and a neutral viewpoint. And this even less if the last viewpoint is based on science. Of course scientists can disagree on theories, and some scientists may support a theory about a manmade Corona-virus. BUT all scientists agree that theories must be judged on the basis of knowledge and data and not out of public or political opinion.

 

Besides, this rule of thumb about the truth in the middle does not seem to be used by many Americans except for Biden and Faucy. The truth is more and more typically assumed to be at one of the extreme ends in US politics. This new heuristic is an immensely dangerous threat to democracy.

 

The rest of the world still often uses the mentioned truth-in-the-middle-rule. As said, this can also be misleading if one viewpoint is extreme, and the other is neutral. Concerning the topic in this post the rule lends a certain credibility to a version of the Wuhan lab theory. If somebody claims that an epidemiological devil resides in Beijing while others say this is not the case, the truth is assumed to be in the middle. Thus there must at least be a smaller epidemiological demon in Beijing. 

 

 And if China is perceived as a Communist dictatorship suppressing democracy and as not cooperating fully with investigations into the origin of the virus, the global public opinion and the world’s media and politicians are more likely to believe myths about Corona despite their implausibility.

 

 Biden in his  diplomatic foreign policy only wants to confront China in one third of the aspects of the relationship. We must wait and see if this will suffice in his polarized nation obsessed with China.

 

Be assured, if reelected the Chosen One will expel the Devil in all his aspects from the World.