This archive report was first published on 5 June 2020.
Jose Saramago's novel Blindness is a thought-provoking tale of how a sudden affliction can change the way we behave with ourselves and with each other. The story begins with a motorist who stops in a rush-hour traffic jam and starts flailing his arms in panic. It soon becomes clear that nearly everyone in the town is going blind, and a new order is established where practically everyone is blind.
As the town adapts to the new realities of sightlessness, some members of the society develop alternative faculties that set them apart from their peers. They use these advantages to pull a fast one over others and maximise their gains, especially when it comes to accessing goods and services. Government responses are understandably confused, and patients are herded into quarantine centres where conditions are unbearable.
As conditions worsen, all sorts of systems for the exploitation of the weakest members of the cohort come to the fore. The age-old sexual exploitation of women shows its ugly head, spurring an uprising led by the females who throw themselves against the hoodlums who have dominated them. The women become the spearhead of a popular uprising that overthrows the oppressive system.
Published on June 5, 2020, Saramago's novel is a frightening story that is easy to recognise in our present realities imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact that even the most distinguished virologists and epidemiologists have so little knowledge as to how this pandemic will eventually play out, makes us all blind to the dangers of profiteers on the prowl.
