Welcome. Im the executive director of the the Strike Center and im honor ode begin tonights program by introducing two individuals whose vision and generosity made it possible. First, someone whose name we all recognize, john striker, former president of Temple Immanuel and a donor who has allowed his edge miss family main sake. This is erica. Then be followed by dr. Marsha, a member of the tampa abort of trustee. Of you want to submit a question for speakers do so using the zoom chat function. Ill ask also to remind everybody that right now in the chat function well put a link for you to purchase the copy of the book if you have yet to do. So lets begin. Thank you very much, and thank you john. I hop that even though we cant see him, he can hear us and to all of you for being with us. It is my honor to introduce tonights extraordinary guests. Two men whose voices have brought so much public understanding and debate in europe and the United States about who we are, where we have been and where we are going. Bernardhenri levy is one of the most influential intel electrics our time. With the publication of his book in 1977, also launched an unprecedented controversy over the european complicity with the toll tar tarean jim. Hi come bin path of writing, underground active jim and support for democratic right has never wavered. Beginning with his property and presence on the battlefield during the lib briggs in bangladesh in 1971, continuing to anwar, afghanistan, and israel and more. Today after over 30 published works of philosophy, political essay, fiction and theater, hundreds articles and on on yesterday, four opeds and reporting from the front lines in syria,ian and more. He has turn his mind to the moment were currently enduring. Returning to the concept of the medical gaze he asks that we think critically and protect Human Society from our a threat of the future. His approximation i have to say i have been awaiting into english with the virus in the a aim of madness i believe offers a crucial if not vital reflection on the multiple meanings of a lockdown. The most perverse and dangerous pitfalls of what it means to confine ones thinking and ones gaze towards the other. Yes, to being safe and responsible, but no to the consignment of our minds. Tonight he will discuss with Thomas Freedman one of americas leading newspaper columnis his insights captured in this new become. Mr. Friedman began reporting for the New York Times in 1981, served as the beirut world chief, the Jerusalem Bureau chief, International Economic correspondent, and since 1995, is is Foreign Affairs columnist. Three pulitzer prize, Thomas Friedman is the author of seven New York Times best selling books. The timing of your book in this conversation could not be better. I see the participants climbing as we sit here. That is a great credit to you and the number of people who want to hear your insights. I thought maybe we would begin by just asking you to summarize the book, take five or seven minutes as she would like. Maybe come back with my own take on the pandemic. And then lets iterate back and forth and see if we can drill down to a real bane of understanding for all of our listeners here. Over to you. Guest thanks, for this conversation with you. For me it is a treat. At i am very happy for this occasion. To make a very difficult, but what do i mean by which is translated in a slightly different way in america. In times i said this virus takes us mad. There are two sorts of madness induced, created by this virus. The first one on which we will agree, you and me, is those who denied the virus. Those who do not want to see the virus and those who put a mask on the reality. And to fall into like children in a sandbox seeing which is like the reelection exposed, reacting in a crazy, stupid, and criminal way. Meaning with all of the respect due to your country. Meaning your president , some of his entourage, some of his affect is him and others in both brazil and many, many others, they react with madness to the pandemic. On this im sure we will agree. So i will not spend seven minutes on that. To be mad which is the way we react to this pandemic. You have of course a lot of people who react and act with the wisdom for sure. But you have also a pandemic of hysteria all over the world. And selfishness. I believe for example the way we are giving power to the doctors who dont wish it, who do not wish so much as if we are lost, and when you are lost to act in a sort of rather crazy way. Too much the doctors know they are to be respected. But they are not gods. In their knowledge is not power, it is never ever called world. If we consider for this opportunity. This is a way to be mad. Another way to be mad is to consider, i tried to listen to the world. My job, my specialty but it is how people express. In some of these sentences, which spread in our world, i cannot help hearing some things which bother me. For example, social distancing. Of course it is necessary. Of course we have to accept it for a while. We dont know if it will be months, if it will be a year. If it would be a few years for sure. But for myself, i accepted as a terrible in sad obligation. [inaudible] but what i see in europe and in america, is a lot of people accepting a sort of new normal state. As for myself, and most, we spend our life fighting for social distancing. Social distance is precisely what we are fighting against. To this conversation by all possible ways but social distance means inequality. Means despised and so on and so on. There is a word to accept it as a new normal way of being which is a sort of panic. When i hear dr. Anthony fauci. Saying as a sort of evidence that shake hands will not combat for very long and it is okay like this. Again, but what is happening, shake hands. Of course to very big thing. It is a very tiny symbol it is a sign of peace, it is a sign of fair contract, it is a sign of equality. It is a way which humans look at each other with mutual respect. Instead of the previous time when one looked down on the other and so on and so on. And so in this way of consenting accepting, may be cherishing these symptoms of this moment, i take an example and then it will be to you. The confinement as we say in france, looked down as you say america. Consists with people. In a sort of moment of self focusing. Digging in of one self, going back to what is supposed to be the truth which is the complete opposite to the real duty of the man, of the jewish woman or man especially, which consists getting out of yourself. Getting to the other. Transforming yourself into a host for the other. Her transforming yourself to the other. The misery of the other. So again it is another example of this sort of bad affects or side effects which i will accept in the limited time. But to which appeared to me as it had to be consistent with the new normal state of things. This is the second madness and the main idea. Sue went just a few thoughts of my own, a very important point i think you raise, it is about what is called in the language of american Popular Culture today, safety is in. Because you really ask a very fundamental question, and previous pandemics, we go back to 1918, there was a rather tragic view of the human condition. The coming and going of pandemics. And it was if a pandemic happens, some will die. But we will not lock down the whole economy to save to try to save every single person. There is the much more tragic kind of sensibility, life was nasty, brutal and short. Literally lifespans were shorte shorter. You have raised a point in some interviews as well. Why did that change . That sense, we have approached this pandemic very differently from previous ones in history. And what role may be did the internet plan that . Guest what has changed is probably realize on metaphysics. Our conception of what is the meaning of being a human being and so one. There are two truths, one which is good and one is. [inaudible] the good sense is life is much more sacred than it was in 1918 and 19. At the end of the day, remember that was the end of the First World War which was a butchery, which would be unacceptable today. This is a time when four wars for example, even if we dont really get zero dead. But the death of into merrick and soldier, a front shoulder, if it happened so much it was not at this time. [inaudible] things which were in the order of nature today our scandal. But, tragic means another thing. And this is is less, is not as good. We are in the moment of our destiny where we think that we can really topple, we can really get rid of the tragic. That we can really get rid of of inevitable loss, lack, whatever you call it. At the end of this process there is the idea you can triumph again. You can win against death itsel itself. That you can start to get a new humanity where we will be as gods as the famous french writer said. Which we get rid of a tragedy, to put tragedy far from us means that. Means this dream of humanity, getting rid of these of itself. And i think that it is very dangerous to answer into that. But the experience of the. [inaudible] , of the last centuries tell us that if we go too far in these anti tragic dream, if we really cross, if we decide to delete as in a computer program, not convenient, we get much worse or harm. So on one side we consider life as sacred. On the other side, we feed the dream of the humanity getting rid of death. Which might be a way of creating. [inaudible] this is what changed naturally after the beginning of the 21st century. Host so an interesting point in your book, it is a good place for us to segue, let me share with you my perspective. Because it is actually the point where we meet. But i get there, from a very different route. You come at it from a very philosophical perspective. And i would say in many ways european. I actually get there, i got there through a different way. Actually by looking at Natural Systems. And so, your book is such a wonderful framing of perspective a a philosopher on this. And i actually come at the pandemic from the perspective of an environmentalist. But we are going to end at the same place. So let me share with you, and brief how i got to the same conclusion. My daughter, natalie is executive producer of all Things Considered weekend on National Public radio, so i never miss a show. And on easter sunday, they did a round up of pastors sermons from around the country. At the height of the pandemic. And my favorite was pastor Michael Curry from the national cathedral. Easter sermon by singing a little song. Hes got the whole world in his hand s got the whole wide world in his hands hes got the whole world in his hands hes got the whole world in his hands now if you just substitute, bernard, she for he, you will know where i start with the pandemic she got the whole world in her hands, this is the first time for our generation of human species that we have all, at the same time, simultaneously and in the grip of Mother Nature. Unless you are 103, this is basically the first time all of us have been in the grip of what i call one of Mother Natures festivals. To put it in american baseball terms, Mother Natures throws pitches that is, she throws fastballs at us they are called viruses, they are called hurricanes and tornadoes and floods and droughts and forest fires. They are all of the things she throws at us. To sort out the fittest. Who shall get their dna into the next generation and who shall not . Now with Mother Nature throws her fastballs at us, she, actually does not reward the strongest. She doesnt reward the smartest. She only rewards the most adaptive. That is who she rewards, that is what darwin taught us. She actually only rewards three adaptation strategies. She basically asks in the internet every individual, every collective three questions. First of all, are you humble . Do you respect my virus . Because if you dont, i will hurt you or someone you love. Second, she asks are you coordinated in your response to my virus . Because i evolve my virus over millennia to find any crack in your immune system, your individual immune system or your collective immune system. And lastly she asks is your adaptation strategy, to my virus, built on chemistry, biology and physics alone . Because if they are built on politics, ideology and election gallantry, not chemistry biology and physics, i will hurt you or someone you love. Because i come Mother Nature, i am just chemistry biology and physics, that is all a. M. You cant talk me up, you cant talk me down you cant say Mother Nature having a bad recession could you take a few months off . I will do whatever chemistry, biology, dictate and to put her to get them american baseball terms, i always bat last, and i always bat 1000 bird ive not lack control lost a duel and 4. 8 billion years. So that is where i start. And its actually were might tragic sensibility comes from. Because when you are up against Mother Nature, tradeoffs are always built into the scenario. They are inevitable. So, to me the key mistake that we made in america, our president made. I am not going to turn this into a trump bashing session. We all know what he is. Trumps great failure, analytically to begin with of many, but the central one is he does not look at the world through Natural Systems were the only looks through markets. His only look at Natural Resources as golf courses prepare he could triumph over nature because he actually builds a waterfalls for his famous for building waterfalls on his golf courses. So we thought he could triumph over nature. You may recall early in the pandemic, he gave a disastrous speech on the next day change policy, amended it in the market went up a Record Number of points. He actually took a screenshot of the market rise and he sent it to a man name lou dobbs and that knucklehead, showed it, term autograph the market going up and lou dobbs, that knucklehead showed it on the evening Business News of fox tv. While they were doing that, the two of them, Mother Nature was silently exponentially and mercilessly spreading coronavirus from coasttocoast. So the central challenge, and this gets to me to the core of your tragic points, im going to come out of through nature, is from the very beginning. We had to have a twopronged policy that the right policy from the very beginning was how do we maximize saving lives and livelihood at the same time in a pandemic where you are up against Mother Nature. You had to try to maximize life and livelihood. Because if you just walk down everything and crush the economy, so many more people will die over time, taps of despair from lost jobs, homes, businesses and hope that will ever die covid19. Answer the challenge is how do you do both . Now we saw three basic models around the world in that. Then i will end with this. We saw the chinese model. Chinese model was actually as a state surveillance system, china has developed to control its people. To try to control the virus. They were super efficient. They didnt just flatten the curve they crush the curve. But they did it using a huge state apparatus to test back in trace people with the virus. We have democratic variants of that, france had once, singapore, hong kong, south korea, germany, although had democratic variance of that. Depending on the culture and the efficiency of the government, some worked better in some worked less. The second model is a swedish model. The swedish model says were actually going to balance lives and livelihood by keeping part of the economy open, part of the School System open will close other parts of encourage social distancing. We will actually go for her immunity. The chinese wanted to crush the virus and wait for the vaccine to get hurt immunity, the swede said lets enter do it by letting the young and healthy go out, acquire the virus, overcoming to get natural hurt immunity. In the last model is the american model. Which was to talk like were going to do like china, to act like were doing like sweden, to prepare for neither and to claim to be superior to both. That basically is the trump strategy. And it has given us this incredible that we are neither maximizing lives or livelihood. So that is how i come to the tragic sensibility that you arrived at. But its coming there through the root of looking at the problem as a Natural Systems problem, and what happens when you are up against mother natur nature . Guest okay. Again, very interesting. We reach the same point. We start from a different point. About trump in the state of america, i would love to disagree, i would love that its too pessimistic, but we agree one 100 . In this, for me, for a european who believes so much in america, it is heartbreaking. As i often say, i belong to this category who arrive without the american sacrifices. And to see other agenda american the state that is today is just catastrophic. But let me elaborate on a brilliant point i thought you made. That we are, from a european point your sin, almost back to a prechristopher columbus, lovely thought. Guest we europeans, for the first time in the ages we dont expect anything from america. Before he had anti americans, you had true americans, but at least americans was on the tabl table. America was a fascination of love of hate, it was in the center of the game. In europe, no expectation for america. For the rest of the world, and this especially holds to the state of the new powers like new empire like russia, like china, like you ran in pakistan, they are moving, they are stepping in as if america did not exist. This is what i mean about a prechristopher columbus world. And that is what is absolutely unthinkable a few years ago. That the world of america does not count. In americas not taken into consideration. For the western we will agree on that. We agree on all that you said at the end. Where we disagree, i think im going to stress on that. Because we advanced more by disagreeing than agreeing. You said what Mother Nature was asking