Late May 2020. The shelves are well stocked for the moment—with flour, pasta, toilet paper, sugar—though some items, like the cheap Turkish grape juice at the little local around the corner, still disappear for days. The COVID-19 lockdown has offered glimpses of a parched, restricted reality that could set in at any point. Suddenly we see how quickly the basic arrangements on which we depend—electricity, telephone wires, a competent civil service, food supply lines—can cease to deliver. We also see that we can get by without what we’ve been told are necessities: airplanes are grounded, spending limits are ignored, deadlines don’t matter. We’re peering into the backstage, at the long-distance systems that keep us fed, keep the gears turning, keep the lights on. When all this kicked in I was reading about the breakneck emergence of a national infrastructure of canals, roads, railroads, telegraphs, and science institutions in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s; those were also years of a cholera epidemic, an economic crisis, and wild utopias. The pandemicmakes visible, then and now, the patchworked, faulty, unsynchronized character of what was then called “the American system.” It gives apocalyptic shape to the haunting graffiti on a rusty railroad bridge I saw in Philadelphia after the 2016 election: “MAKE AMERICA

中文翻译：

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疾病与甜蜜与力量

2020 年 5 月下旬。目前货架上库存充足——有面粉、意大利面、卫生纸、糖——尽管有些物品，比如附近小地方的廉价土耳其葡萄汁，仍然消失了好几天。COVID-19 封锁让我们瞥见了一个随时可能出现的枯燥、受限的现实。突然间，我们看到我们所依赖的基本设施——电力、电话线、称职的公务员、食品供应线——停止提供的速度有多快。我们还看到，我们可以在没有被告知的必需品的情况下度过难关：飞机停飞，支出限制被忽略，最后期限无关紧要。我们凝视着后台，看着让我们吃饱、保持齿轮转动、保持灯亮的长距离系统。当这一切开始时，我读到了美国在 1830 年代和 1840 年代迅速兴起的国家基础设施，包括运河、公路、铁路、电报和科学机构；那也是霍乱流行、经济危机和疯狂乌托邦的年代。大流行使当时和现在都可见，当时被称为“美国系统”的错综复杂、有缺陷、不同步的特征。它为我在 2016 年大选后在费城看到的一座锈迹斑斑的铁路桥上令人难以忘怀的涂鸦赋予了世界末日的形状：“MAKE AMERICA 当时被称为“美国制度”的不同步特征。它为我在 2016 年大选后在费城看到的一座锈迹斑斑的铁路桥上令人难以忘怀的涂鸦赋予了世界末日的形状：“MAKE AMERICA 当时被称为“美国制度”的不同步特征。它为我在 2016 年大选后在费城看到的一座锈迹斑斑的铁路桥上令人难以忘怀的涂鸦赋予了世界末日的形状：“MAKE AMERICA