The Wall Street Journal - 28.03.2020 - 29.03.2020

C2| Saturday/Sunday, March 28 - 29, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Thecrisis

will

renew

respect

for

compe-

tenceand

expertise.

als making tough decisions

and exuding competence. No

“the-dog-ate-my-homework”

and “it’s-not-my-fault” ex-

cuses—just old-school, in-

spired leadership.

Once the trauma passes, I

feel sure that more Americans

will appreciate leadership

based on evidence, problem-

solving and consensus-building.

They will see the importance of

skill, professionalism and sci-

ence-based solutions. Support

for these values could go a long

way toward reducing the hy-

perpartisanship that now para-

lyzes Washington.

Second, for most of our his-

tory, America has been a bot-

tom-up country, relying less on

the federal government than on

what Edmund Burke called the

“little platoons” and on govern-

ments closer to the people they

serve. Over the past genera-

tion, we have seen the federal

government encroach ever

more. The federal government’s

inability to respond quickly and

effectively to the coronavirus is

creating a newfound respect

for local initiatives, private-sec-

REVIEW | AFTER THE PANDEMIC

such announcements are inevitable.

I’m hearing much the same thing from

coast to coast, though the institutional

damage done by the coronavirus looks at

first glance to be especially devastating to

theater. Even the biggest regional the-

aters have either laid off staff or are days

away from doing so. Few artistic directors

feel comfortable speaking on the record,

but the boss of one of the country’s top

regional houses, who just furloughed

three-quarters of his employees, told me

that “I have never had to do anything this

drastic in my entire professional career.

It’s horrible.”

Imagine, then, the plight of the smaller

companies, the no-budget storefront and

off-Broadway houses whose risk-taking

productions supply the artistic fertilizer for

America’s theatrical culture. Many of these

groups—perhaps most of the smaller

ones—simply won’t reopen when the crisis

abates. As for the actors, directors, play-

wrights, designers and other professionals

who make sure there’s a show onstage

when the curtain goes up...well, they’re in

can’t-pay-the-rent trouble. As one of them,

the writer and director Daniel Goldstein,

told the New Yorker, “All theater people,

except the ones who have institutional

jobs—we’re gig people. We’re no different

than a handyman. When the theaters

closed, we were literally all unemployed.

Everyone I know is unemployed.”

For now, charitable contributions are

helping to ease the bite. One online com-

pany, Goldstar Events, which sells half-

price tickets to big-city live performances,

has just retrofitted its website, http://www.gold-

star.com, as a platform through which you

can make direct donations to performing-

arts organizations of all kinds. Those do-

nations will make a difference. Says Mi-

chael Halberstam, artistic director of

Chicago’s Writers Theatre, the best re-

gional theater in America: “We need your

support now more than ever in the his-

tory of theater in this country. Without

ticket sales, we’re almost entirely depen-

dent on individuals, corporations and

foundations for our very survival.”

Nothing, of course, can kill off the per-

forming arts. By bringing audiences to-

gether to participate in collective acts of

truth and beauty, they provide us with a

communion of souls that speaks to some-

thing fundamental in the human heart. But

the challenge posed by Covid-19 is far

greater than anything else they have faced

in my lifetime, and the story of the havoc

that it will wreak is one I dread to tell.

Mr. Teachout is the Journal’s drama critic.

Institutions of all sizes are

facedwithfinancialdisaster.

In trying times, we realize the meaning of commitment.

Marriage With Family

At Its Center

BigTrouble

Forthe

Performing

Arts

OF ALL THE BAD TIDINGSbrought by the

coronavirus, here’s the scariest piece of

news for lovers of the performing arts: The

Metropolitan Opera is canceling the rest of

its current season—andfurloughing its or-

chestra members, choristers, dancers and

stagehands. That reportedly comes to more

than 500 people. What’s more, the unions

aren’t protesting. As Leonard Egert, na-

tional executive director of the American

Guild of Musical Artists, told the New York

Times: “We’re disappointed, we’re upset,

but we understand.”

You don’t have to be an opera buff to

grasp the wider implications of this devel-

opment. The Met is America’s largest per-

forming arts organization. While it’s

weathered severe budgetary problems in

recent seasons, it’s successfully dealt with

all of them—until now. As a result of the

social-distancing lockdown in New York

caused by Covid-19, the Met is staring

down losses of up to $60 million. That’s a

hit the company can’t survive without

drastic measures in response. Hence the

furloughs—and the absence of squawking.

Everybody can count.

What’s happening at the Met is hap-

pening at every performing-arts organiza-

tion I know of, large and small alike. Op-

era, orchestras, dance companies, theater

troupes, nightclubs: All have seen their

revenues collapse overnight. And unlike

the Met, which has a $300 million endow-

ment, most of them have next to nothing

in the bank to see them through the crisis.

The results are alarmingly self-evident. As

I write these words, the producers of two

Broadway plays already in previews,

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and

“Hangmen,” have an-

nounced that neither

show will go on, even

after Broadway’s the-

aters reopen. More

New York’s

closed

Metropolitan

Opera.

BYTERRYTEACHOUT

pharmaceutical ingredients?

How can China build a hospital

in weeks while we seem para-

lyzed? Why do licensing laws

restrict health-care providers

from providing care? Where on

Earth are the ventilators? The

list is long and varied.

The explanation for many of

these problems is that out-

dated 20th-century rules sty-

mie 21st-century innovation. In

an emergency, many of those

rules can be waived by execu-

tive order. After the crisis,

there will be momentum to

challenge the stale rules that

hindered our response. This is

likely to go well beyond dealing

with pandemics.

Telehealth, for instance,

tor creativity, personal respon-

sibility and civic engagement.

Let us hope that Washington

loosens its grip on policy and

allows federalism to bloom.

Finally, we need to use to-

day’s crisis as a learning op-

portunity. Millions of Ameri-

cans are asking: Why does it

take so long for a vaccine to

become available? How did the

U.S. become dependent on Chi-

nese manufacturing for vital

should become more

commonplace, both

because of the short-

age of health-care

professionals and be-

cause of the help it

provides in delivering

care efficiently. And

as millions of Ameri-

can families are dis-

covering, online in-

struction is a viable

means for students to

learn. States will

need to figure out how to

change licensing and payment

rules to encourage these revo-

lutions in vital services.

During and after this crisis,

across the policy spectrum, in

both the public and private

sectors, people will ask, “If we

weren’t doing it this way, how

would we do it?” By making

this question our post-pan-

demic mantra, we will become

more nimble and innovative,

less reliant on Washington and

more focused on the long-term

issues that will drive America

toward a more purposeful and

prosperous future.

Mr. Bush was the governor of

Florida from 1999 to 2007. BEN TWINGLEY/PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

discusses Hurricane

Dennis, July 11, 2005.

Mayors and

governors

aren’t making

excuses.

ON MARCH 13—the day my wife in-

formed me that our weekend date night

was off because our governor had de-

clared a state of emergency—I had an in-

kling that big changes were in store for

our marriage. A few days later, as we

found ourselves barely managing to

home-school six children, work two jobs

and run a big household on lockdown, I

knew that the loss of a regular date

night was going to be the least of our

marital challenges. Scenarios like ours—

and ones much, much harder, with mil-

lions of parents losing jobs, heading to

the front lines to battle the virus or

grieving the loss of loved ones—are

playing out in homes

across America.

There is no doubt that

the fallout of this pan-

demic will exact a toll on

marriage in America. The

marriage rate will fall, as

fewer men and women

have the confidence to

head to the altar amid the

greatest recession in our

lifetime—much as the marriage rate fell

in the wake of the Great Recession.

For those who are already married,

the stresses and strains of marriage

and family life in the time of Covid-19

will send thousands of couples to di-

vorce court. Marital failure will be es-

pecially common for husbands and

wives under the sway of what I call the

“soul mate model” of marriage. The

soul mate model—trumpeted in books

like Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray,

Love,” not to mention countless songs

and rom-coms—is the idea that mar-

riage is primarily about an intense

emotional and romantic connection be-

tween two people and should last only

so long as that connection remains

happy and fulfilling for both parties.

This self-centered model gained in pop-

ularity for many Americans starting in

the 1970s, the “Me Decade.”

But feelings are a fragile foundation

for marriage. A recent YouGov survey

indicates that married people in Cali-

fornia who hold this view of marriage

are about 60% more likely to think

their marriage might end in divorce,

compared with those who have a more

family-first model of marriage, believ-

ing that “Marriage is about romance

but also the kids, money, raising a fam-

ily together.” No doubt the disappear-

ance of date nights and so much more

in today’s trying times will undo many

marriages founded on the idea that

marriage is supposed to make you feel

good all the time.

The silver lining here is that—in the

face of so much trauma and economic

dislocation—most marriages will not

collapse, and many will instead emerge

stronger and more stable as husbands

and wives develop a new appreciation

for how much they love and depend on

their spouse—and how much they, their

kids and their kin depend

on them keeping their

marriage together. As I

wrote a decade ago about

the Great Recession, the

hardship “led many

Americans to deepen

their commitment to mar-

riage and, in some cases,

to table or cancel their

plans to divorce or sepa-

rate.” In fact, the divorce rate dropped

in the immediate wake of that eco-

nomic downturn and has fallen more

than 20% over the last decade. The di-

vorce rate is likely to fall even faster in

the wake of this new crisis.

That’s because in times of trial and

tribulation, most people—and most

spouses—don’t become more self-cen-

tered, they become more other-centered,

more cognizant of how much they need

their family members to navigate diffi-

cult and dark times. In post-Covid-19

America, I’m confident that the family-

first model of marriage will gain ground

against the soul mate model.

As for me and my bride, we didn’t en-

joy a date night last weekend, but I was

able to deliver food, some socially dis-

tanced conversation and air hugs from

the grandchildren to my homebound 70-

something in-laws. And it felt better

than date night.

Mr. Wilcox is director of the National

Marriage Project at the University of

Virginia and a senior fellow of the In-

stitute for Family Studies.

Most

marriages

will emerge

stronger and

more stable.

BYW.BRADFORDWILCOX

AS GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA,I

dealt with the aftermath of

9/11, major floods and fires,

and an anthrax attack, as well

as eight hurricanes and four

tropical storms over just 16

months. Each crisis, however

difficult, was a learning oppor-

tunity. Each made our state

and local emergency respond-

ers better at their jobs and im-

proved Florida’s capacity to

deal with future problems.

The coronavirus pandemic

is an unprecedented crisis,

challenging all of us to protect

our families’ health and sur-

vive the severe economic con-

sequences of self-quarantining.

The risks are real, and the

path forward is uncertain. But

we will get through this, and

the experience is likely to

bring about significant

changes in our society.

First, dealing with the coro-

navirus will help to restore re-

spect for leadership and ex-

pertise. Glued to our television

sets, we see mayors, governors

and public-health profession-

BYJEBBUSH

Local Leaders Showing

The Way Forward

KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS RUTH GWILY