Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says US is battling three viruses: Covid, racism, and paranoia
According to documentarian, Ken Burns, the United States is in the middle of what he describes as the fourth "great crisis" as President Donald Trump's final hours at the White House tick by. According to NPR, Burns said the country has been affected by three viruses. "We're beset by three viruses, are we not?" Burns said. "A year-old Covid-19 virus, but also a 402-year-old virus of white supremacy, of racial injustice... And we've got an age-old human virus of misinformation, of paranoia, of conspiracies."
Burns opined these three factors were instrumental in contributing to the great crisis following the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. "In order to truly understand and appreciate the promise of the country, still unrealized for too many, we must explore the points at which it was most challenged, at times when it appeared even to almost fall apart,” Burns said. But rather than seeing last week’s insurrection as “the start of something or an end,” Burns proposes: “It is a moment when we each get to decide how we want to proceed.”
He also drew a comparison between Trump and Franklin D Roosevelt, the former president. According to him, the latter was someone who "expertly" handled two of America's greatest crises. He added that Roosevelt had "developed an authentic empathy for his fellow citizens”—a presidential quality that he says "seems almost mystical to us today."
That said, Burns also said there were hope and optimism by citing some of the recent developments. "We're beginning to have a racial reckoning. More people voted than ever before... Poll workers defied the coronavirus, voters defied the coronavirus and held the safest and most accurate vote in our history. Courts upheld every challenge to that,” he said. "We have a woman as a vice president — we have a woman of color as a vice president — this is a time not for rejoicing, but to remember that in order to gather strength to deal with these dark moments, we have to actually remember to let in the light that is right in front of us."
In 2016, Burns slammed Trump as "an infantile, bullying man who, depending on his mood, is willing to discard old and established alliances, treaties and longstanding relationships." He told Politico he wasn't planning on making a film on American history anytime soon or in his words, "or at least not now." The acclaimed filmmakers' greatest works include— 'The Civil War', 'Jazz', 'The War', 'The National Parks: America's Best Idea', 'Prohibition', 'The Roosevelts' and 'The Vietnam War.'
The Brooklyn man is renowned for his style of using archival footage and photographs in his documentary films. A couple of his docus have been nominated for the Academy Awards while some have bagged the honors at the Emmys. Burns has been politically active. According to the Washington Post, he compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln in 2007 while endorsing him.