Scott Galloway on recasting American individualism and institutions

I GREW UP on stories of the second world war. During the aerial bombardment of London known as the Blitz, my mother, aged seven, had to sleep in tube stations for protection. She was given a mask against poison gas. It was difficult to put on, and frightening to wear, so a thoughtful designer had modified the children’s version with a rubber nose—my mother thought it made her look like Donald Duck. Sheltering underground with a gas mask was traumatic, but society was under threat and sacrifices had to be made. Today, when people refuse to physically distance or wear a mask at Walmart, I envision my seven-year-old mother as a child, on a dark tube platform, with her awkward Donald Duck gas mask.

Once again, society is under threat—not from tanks and bombs but an enemy one-400th the width of a human hair. The toll has been catastrophic. In America, covid-19 has claimed more than 500,000 lives. Millions of people have lost their jobs and 40m face eviction. A generation of children have had their education interrupted or impaired.