# How will the coronavirus pandemic\* affect human civilization?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-affect-human-civilization/848500>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 25, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-affect-human-civilization/848500 "2020-02-25T16:51:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-affect-human-civilization/848500/41 "2020-04-08T01:43:09Z")

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> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> The question was how would a pandemic affect civilization.
> 
> A pandemic that kills the elderly would do less damage on a society wide level than one that kills the young and healthy. Thats just the way it is.

Elders embody society. Culture is transmitted by grandparents. I learned to read on Grandma’s knee because she had the time for it while Mom worked. Kill-off elders and society is decapitated.

> [@](#):
>
> If you have 2 possible pandemics.
> 
> 1. kills tons of elderly people
> 2. Causes massive malnutrition among young people
> 
> The second will cause far worse problems for society since those young people will have lifelong damage to their health and productivity. The first will be less damaging since those people are past their productive years.

Quantify “productive years”.

More than a few old farts MrsRico and I associate with work productively. And retired old farts with medical training are being recruited to help with the crisis so _someone_ thinks they’re vital. If we kill off everyone over age 65, removing all their experience and skills, how long would the rest of the nation last?

Back to the OP - and no more jokes about how it’d be nice if humans were civilized i.e. decent. “Civilization” is literally urban life; “civilized society” is a network of housing clusters plus support facilities e.g. food and energy production. Recurrent pandemics are The New Normal for our globalized civilization. I expect rigid authoritarian controls and ubiquitous surveillance. Forget any dreams of “privacy” and “freedom”.

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