As in every major crisis, the psychological downward spiral of this pandemic is remarkable. Its invisible vastness and its stealth stimulate the mind’s capacity to assume the worst. And so COVID-19 has triggered an avalanche of predictions that the world as we know it is at an end.

Depending on individual taste and temperament, analysts tell us that, inevitably, China will soon reign supreme; that representative democracy and the Western model are in decline; that “neoliberal” capitalism and globalization are doomed; and that the nations of the industrialized world will be less open and free, less connected and poorer.