The Fifth Risk: A Chillingly Prophetic Narrative for our Time

 

For those who have never read this book, ,”The Fifth Risk” is a chillingly prophetic narrative that perfectly embodies the reasoning and set of circumstances that have led us to this point in the pandemic. Not only is there no plan for getting us out of the Pandemic-at least from the Trump Administration- there is instead a decisive narrative which Lewis lays out that allows you to understand why there is a pattern to the idea of simply ‘dropping off the cliff.’

 

The plan from the beginning, long before the Trump Administration even began to take power, was to break down the walls of governance that had surrounded the Washington agencies for decades prior. Of course, many of Trump’s supporters argue: That is the point! Steve Bannon proudly declared that government would be ‘de-constructed.’ And even those who ended up disagreeing with Trump heavily, such as John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, did help implement the policies that were laid out in the beginning of Trump’s tenure in office.

 

The plan was this: There would be no ‘plan’ for governing. And that included everything that started with the transitioning plan that was thrown out along with Gov Chris Christie, who had worked for months to help set up a Transition team.  What author Michael Lewis, whose own prescient and spot-on analysis has given us “Moneyball” as a new idiom for speaking of sports teams, and the idea of “The Big Short” to explain the housing crash of 2008, has now eerily predicted in the “Fifth Risk” is the idea of bringing Trumpism to Washington. The notion is laid out that when things are running smoothly, we cannot notice the breakdown of governmental functions.

 

However, in a crisis such as the Pandemic of Covid-19, we soon see that the offices that were shuttered long ago in preparation for a pandemic are vitally important and cannot simply be revived in a short period of time. This is the underlying message of Lewis’ book. It’s a timely message, and it gives us the best explanation of ‘what went wrong’ in this case. Unfortunately, Michael Lewis is dead right with his dire warnings, and we see everything borne out that he warns us about with the lack of response to Covid-19 by Trump & Company.