By Jonah Goldberg
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
While disposing of a body in a mass grave, one man in a
hazmat suit turns to another and asks, "When did we run out of body
bags?"
"Two days ago."
Fortunately, the scene is only from the movie
"Contagion," though it's probably close enough to what is going on in
parts of West Africa right now.
The 2011 hit about a runaway virus that kills millions
has probably come to mind to more than a few people of late as we watch
governments struggle to contain Ebola and reassure the public.
So far, real life is much less scary. In the film, a bat
virus finds its way into a pig and then into a promiscuous American played by
Gwyneth Paltrow, who quickly dies as "patient zero" of a horrifying
global pandemic. Ironically, as America's Ebola patient zero lay dying in a
Dallas hospital last week, Paltrow was playing herself at a $15,000-per-plate
fundraiser in her Los Angeles home and lavishing praise on the president.
"You're so handsome that I can't speak properly," Paltrow gushed. She
also said, "It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of
the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass."
Even without the aid of a pandemic, Paltrow can deliver a
sickening performance.
There have been plenty of movies about deadly viruses
running amok. But most involve dark conspiracies, or aliens, or at the very
least secret agendas and government corruption. The awful 1995 film
"Outbreak" is typical of the genre: Good scientists fight an evil
military determined to keep its hands on a biological superweapon at all costs,
even if it means killing Americans. (Oh, sorry, spoiler alert.)
"Contagion" broke away from the shackles of the
genre. Ross Douthat put it well in an essay for National Review, calling it a
"pro-establishment thriller." Government officials, the scientists,
even the military were all competent and determined to do the right thing.
It was a fascinating departure from the
speak-truth-to-power cinema of the Bush years and even Hollywood's paranoia in
the Clinton years. (In the movie version of "The X-Files," FEMA was a
villainous cabal.)
In "Contagion," the only real villain was a
blogger, Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law). He refuses to take the government
at its word. He disseminates lies for personal gain. He questions the motives
of the mainstream media. At one point a federal agent tells Krumwiede, "If
I could throw your computer in jail, I would."
Given the timing, I think it's no accident Hollywood
produced "Contagion." After all, Obama was going to restore faith in
government. The smart and decent people were in charge. Under a different
president, "Contagion" might have been a paranoid delusion, a la
Oliver Stone's "JFK," and Krumwiede might have been a left-wing hero
like Edward Snowden or an I.F. Stone-style crusader. But under Obama, he had to
be more like a cartoonish Matt Drudge.
As Obama would tell Ohio State students in 2013,
"Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of
government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the
root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum
up the works." (Fun fact: A few days later the IRS scandal broke.)
Again, under Obama, right-thinking people don't question
power like a Krumwiede. They, like a Paltrow, wish the already-powerful
"all of the power" they need.
We now have our own version of "Contagion"
playing out in real time. The disease is different, of course, and so is the
response. Still, I have little doubt that the real-life players at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health are as
well-intentioned as their cinematic versions.
But they aren't nearly as reassuring. They keep telling
us they know what can't happen right up until the moment it happens. They put
the theory of their expertise ahead of the facts on the ground. A nurse
contracts Ebola and the experts immediately blame a "breach of
protocol" they cannot identify. Loyal bureaucrats rush to blame the lack
of a vaccine on budget cuts. Democrats point at Republicans. Republicans
respond that the administration diverted billions to lesser priorities.
No one is blaming the bloggers yet. But that might change
if the supply of body bags runs low.
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