As the death toll as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is rising, so are the conspiracy theories. People are trying to make a logical connection of the highly contagious virus with one theory or another. There are people who are trying to establish as if it was predicted way before or it is a part of a biological warfare. Anything may be true but it needs to be authenticated, before it is believed.
It reminds us of the theory of clash of civilisations, which was originated in 1990s and materialized in 21st century with Afghan war.
Some experts of international politics believe that “the masters” of the world make an ambiance for certain initiatives before embarking on them. They believe that the theory of the clash of civilisations was first introduced to the world then the idea was implemented. Do you remember people finding similarities in different events with the ones already shown in ‘The Simpsons’ cartoon? Well, as per the said belief the events had already been planned.
In 1990s, different people had talked about the clash of civilisations. Bernard Lewis in an article in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly titled ‘The Roots of Muslim Rage’ had used this phrase. Francis Fukuyama’s 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man, discussed this concept in detail.
Samuel Huntington’s book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order’ (1993), which predicted of clashes of different civilizations, is the most popular and detailed book of its genre. The book has categorized Islamic, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist (referred mainly to Chinese) civilisations separately and claimed that the next wars will not be between ideologies, as was waged between communism and socialism in 20th century, but they would be between civilisations. So, with the advent of 21st century a war on massive scale was waged on Islamic civilization. It seems to taking toll on Buddhist civilization now.
Also Read: Did the 2011 Hollywood thriller ‘Contagion’ depict today’s lethal coronavirus outbreak?
There definitely is a possibility of spread of the coronavirus under a biological warfare as tension between China and the United States had recently soared to new heights over capturing of international markets, which paved the way for them to levy new tariffs on products of each other.
Earlier, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller Contagion had become talk of the town amidst the horrifying outbreak of the coronavirus in China. Multiple media sources had parallelized the film with the deadly epidemic rapidly spreading across the country like wildfire.
Now, an excerpt from a medico-thriller novel, The Eyes of Darkness, written in 1981 by Dean Koontz is being highlighted for its mention of a virus originating in Wuhan, the same city which is epicenter of the coronavirus. The virus mentioned in the book as ‘Wuhan-400’ has strange similarities to the present day COVID-19 infection of Wuhan, China.
The story tells that a Chinese military lab creates a virus as part of its biological weapons programme in Wuhan. In chapter 39 of this book, Koontz writes that the lab is located in Wuhan, which lends the virus its name, Wuhan-400.
“They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400’ because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four hundredth viable strain of man-made micro-organisms created at that centre.
“Wuhan-400 is a perfect weapon. It afflicts only human beings. No other living creature can carry it. And like syphilis, Wuhan-400 cannot survive outside a living human body for longer than a minute,” reads the book.
This should be kept in mind that making a connection between the Wuhan-400 and coronavirus could also be an attempt of marketing for the book.
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