The Economist - UK (2022-05-07)

78 Culture TheEconomistMay7th 2022

Mr Gates tentatively proposes that it be

called  germ(Global  Epidemic  Response

and  Mobilisation).  The  pr department

might  not  like  the  name,  but  the  idea  is

worth exploring. He estimates germitself

would  cost  about  $1bn  a  year.  While  wait­

ing for the call, its staff would be employed

in  beefing  up  the  world’s  anti­pandemic

infrastructure—this is where thediploma­

cy  would  come  in—by  chivvyinggovern­

ments into the necessary spendingonde­

tecting,  monitoring  and  suppressing

potential outbreaks. And in runningdrills.

On the technological side, hisshopping

list  includes  designing  and  agreeingon

protocols  for  the  rapid  mass­testing of

drugs that might work againsta particular

pathogen if an outbreak did happen.(Brit­

ain’s recoverytrial, which wasreadytogo

within six weeks of covid­19 beingidenti­

fied,  and  eventually  included  40,000par­

ticipants at 185 sites, comes inforparticu­

lar  praise  here.)  Mr  Gates  alsowantsto

improve  both  vaccine  manufacturingand

distribution,  and  to  improve vaccines

themselves,  particularly  by eliminating

cold chains. 

Most  existing  vaccines  are tempera­

ture­sensitive, and must be passedquickly

from  one  refrigerator  to  anotherenroute

to  the  clinics  where  they  will  beused.Mr

Gates  recommends  research  intothede­

velopment  of  heat­tolerant  vaccines.For

pathogens  that  spread  throughtheair,he

favours a cutting­edge approachtopreven­

tion:  nasal  sprays  containingdrugsthat

bind to the cell­surface proteinswhichvi­

ruses use to gain entry, thus denyingthem

the means to get into their targetcells.

And he envisages new, broad­spectrum

jabs against entire classes of viruses,such

as  influenza.  Techno­optimistthatheis,

he suggests such universal vaccinescould

not  only  pre­empt  illnesses  ofthefuture,

but  annihilate  those  of  the present. In

other words, no more flu. Ever.

That  does  sound  pretty  optimistic,es­

pecially given the difficulty ofeliminating

even  single  viruses  from  the planet—

something that has been achievedonlyfor

smallpox and for a cattle diseasecalledrin­

derpest, and has notably not happenedfor

polio, which still lingers in a fewplacesde­

spite a decades­long campaigntogetridof

it. But, as Arthur C. Clarke put itinhissec­

ond law of science, “The only wayofdisco­

vering the limits of the possibleistoven­

ture past them into the impossible.”

Whether  anything  like  germwillever

come  to  pass,  as  the  world’s attention

shifts from the crisis of covid­19totheca­

tastrophe  in  Ukraine,  remainstobeseen.

But if this book stimulates evena littlelim­

it­pushing of the sort Mr Gatessuggests,it

willhaveserveditspurposewell. n

“TheGoodSoldierSvejk”

The idiocy of war

I

t iswithpridethatJosefSvejkdeclares

to his superior officer: “I dutifully report,

Colonel  Sir,  that  I  am  an  idiot.”  He  has

already been kicked out of the Austro­Hun­

garian  army  once  for  being  an  imbecile.

Since then he has scraped a living in Prague

selling  stolen  dogs.  On  hearing  of  the

assassination  of  Franz  Ferdinand,  Svejk

initially  confuses  the  archduke  with

another  Ferdinand  who  cleans  dog  mess

off  the  streets.  The  war  that  follows  sees

Svejk called up to serve the empire again. 

“The  Fateful  Adventures  of  the  Good

Soldier  Svejk  During  the  World  War”

(known  as  “The  Good  Soldier  Svejk”)  fol­

lows  the  self­proclaimed  fool’s  circuitous

journey  to  the  front.  Jaroslav  Hasek  pub­

lished three volumes of his anti­war satire

between 1921 and 1923; he was working on a

fourth when he died. 

Svejk  is  a  picaro  who  drifts  between

places  and  masters.  He  follows  his  orders

to the letter. Told to attend to every desire

of a lieutenant’s mistress, Svejk does as she

wishes  and  sleeps  with  her.  Instructed  to

find a dog for the lieutenant, he steals one

from a colonel—who sends the whole bat­

talion to the front as punishment. 

Eventually  Svejk  is  thrown  off  a  train

headingtotheeasternfrontintheAustro­

HungarianprovinceofGalicia,sodecides

towalk.Hisownsidetakeshimfora Rus­

siandeserterandhenarrowlyescapesexe­

cution.  He  rejoins  his  unit,  and  here—

before he sees combat—the novel stops. 

Svejk  is  often  compared  to  Yossarian,

the  American  captain  in  Joseph  Heller’s

“Catch­22” whose aim is to survive the sec­

ond  world  war  at  all  costs.  Heller  played

down suggestions that he took inspiration

from Hasek, describing his story as “just a

funny  book”.  But  if  that  were  accurate,

Svejk would be just an idiot. In fact he is a

master  of  subversion,  a  little  man  who

keeps himself out of the regime’s war sim­

ply by following orders. 

Hasek’s life was almost as chaotic as his

character’s. He too was sent to the eastern

front;  later  he  joined  the  Red  Army  and

hobnobbed with Trotsky, eventually sever­

ing  his  communist  links.  Many  writers

have tried to finish his saga (Bertold Brecht

wrote  a  play  in  which  Svejk  crosses  paths

with  Adolf  Hitler).  But  none  has  captured

the  Czech  imagination  as  successfully  as

Hasek, helped by Josef Lada’s Tintin­esque

illustrations in early editions (see picture). 

“To svejk” has entered the Czech vocab­

ulary,  meaning  to  undermine  authority

through stupidity. In 1968, when the Soviet

Union  installed  Gustav  Husak  as  Czecho­

slovakia’s leader after the Prague Spring, he

urged people to “Stop svejking”. (The Sovi­

ets,  missing  the  point,  lauded  Hasek’s

work.) Svejk’s buffoonery has left its mark

across  Europe.  From  Athens  to  Warsaw,

dozens of imitations of “U Kalicha” (At The

Chalice), Svejk’s local, serve steins of Czech

lager. Ingrida Simonyte, Lithuania’s prime

minister, quotes Svejk in her speeches.

Today much of what was once Galicia is

in Ukraine. The Russian soldiers now wag­

ing  a  senseless  war  in  that  country  could

do  worse  than  read  “The  Good  Soldier

Svejk”.  With  luck,  its  send­upof  swagger­

ing  authority  might  inspirethem  to  try  a

bit of svejking themselves.n

Jaroslav Hasek’s satire makes a

mockery of bellicose authority

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