Thread by @BlairWilliams26

So excited to announce that my chapter examining the politics of "letting COVID rip" in Australia has been published in the Research Handbook on Public Management and COVID-19!

If you liked my #COVIDHegemony pieces in the Canberra Times/Croakey, then you'll love this! 👇

First of all, hats off to editors @drhdickinson, @DrSophieYates, @JanineOFlynn and @educ84equity 🥳

It's a truly fantastic and important handbook!

While my COVID Hegemony op-eds were based on the second half of this chapter (and examined COVID under the Albo govt in 2022), the first half actually explores the Morrison govt's handling of the pandemic.

Specifically his "let it rip" approach.

In the first half of the chapter, I argue that "the decision to “let it rip” is ideological, informed by three key pillars of thought: neoliberalism, prosperity gospel and social Darwinism."

Let's look at these three categories in more depth.

Neoliberalism:

Neoliberalism is an economic, political, and moral approach prioritising free market capitalism, rugged individualism, and profit over people's well-being and public services.

Under neoliberalism, "inequality is rationalised as a natural reflection of the rich being rewarded for their “merit” while the poor are to blame for their own failures. In times of crisis, profits must be saved over lives."

As I argued, "the 'can-do-capitalist' rhetoric adopted by Morrison in response to the Omicron variant aligns with this neoliberal ethos." He prioritised the economy over health, a market-led approach, and "personal responsibility" over collective systemic response.

Prosperity Gospel:

I argue that "Morrison is also heavily influenced by his Pentecostal faith" and his "'if you have a go, you get a go' mentality sits firmly within a core Pentecostal doctrine – 'prosperity gospel'."

What is prosperity gospel? "Prosperity gospel holds that believers can ensure material fortune, good health, and success through their faith alone."

It "creates a binary of the “worthy” and “unworthy” and alleges "that fortune is contingent on personal actions, emphasising individual agency, self-reliance, and determination."

Basically, it's your own fault that you're sick and poor (while the rich and healthy deserve it).

So "the mantra of “personal responsibility” that Morrison adopted during the Omicron wave is a clear demonstration of prosperity gospel ... Only those who “had a go” would “get a go” while the rest were entirely to blame for their own misfortune."

And lastly, Social Darwinism:

Social Darwinism "not only provides a natural justification for social hierarchies but holds that 'tampering with them weakens humankind'".

Social Darwinism creates a binary "between the “fit” and “unfit” deriving from pre-existing biases" and has often been used to "justify systemic social inequalities and reject attempts to even the playing field".

So "Morrison’s commitment to 'staring down' the virus while acknowledging that many will die, and many more will be infected, repackaged this ideology."

Calling for a "return to normal" during the height of the Omicron wave "insinuates a hierarchy of worth".

I write that, "for Morrison, the future is 'living with COVID' despite the risks that this poses to the most vulnerable Australians, implying that some groups – older, disabled, immunocompromised – must be sacrificed for the 'good of the herd'."

I also theorise that neoliberalism, prosperity gospel and social Darwinism can be regarded as 3 aspects of the same ideology.

They "share a belief in hierarchies of worth, that competition is at the heart of society, and success or failure rests with individual responsibility."

That is, "social Darwinism is the overarching ideology from which neoliberalism and prosperity theology draw inspiration; neoliberalism is the economic manifestation of this theory; and prosperity gospel is the theological paradigm."

The second half of my chapter, as mentioned above, explores me COVID Hegemony theory in explaining the apparent acceptance of “living with COVID” by the Australian people.

But I've covered that extensively here before, e.g.:

https://twitter.com/BlairWilliams26/status/1611845006020706304?lang=en

As well as here:

https://twitter.com/BlairWilliams26/status/1620897696143011844

I'm so happy to see this piece finally published though! I spent all of 2022 thinking about these ideas and theorising why Australians were suddenly so ok with going from zero-COVID to COVID being everywhere all the time.

But I didn't think about writing or publishing anything because I felt a tad bit of imposter syndrome ("I do genderpol, what would I know?").

Thankfully @drhdickinson asked me to contribute a chapter to this handbook and I was able to put pen to paper!

If you want to read more, then check it out!
elgaronline.com/edcollchap/boo…