I take pyrrhic solace in a simple fact:
For all the bluster, posture, spear rattle and shield beating-- The so called "Powerful" do not posses actual power. All of it derives from the complicity of those beneath them.
Because of this, they can never dictate reality (no matter how much they think they can.) As a result, when they try to dictate away harsh outside forces, like the spread of disease, through indignant petulance and political spin-- THEY ALWAYS FAIL.
It is my hope, that deep down, once the reality that COVID-19 is going to be with us for a very long while (due to reservoir populations in wildlife areas, et al), and that pretending it is just a little flu will completely destroy all productive capacity of a complex society (because the people that could do the work are all fucking dead, or bed-bound with chronic respiratory and neurological consequences of the systemic mismanagement of the crisis), throwing the so called "Power" of the "powerful" right out the goddamn window.
Some small part of me wants to hope that people will put two and two together, and figure out that "what is comfortable and easy" leads down this road, inexorably, and teach their children better, and (at least for a time), a better world can grow out of the decaying corpse of the old.
But then I remember where I live, and the best I hope for is just surviving with my health intact.