Michael Belkin compares the Black Death to the coronavirus

In the 14th century when the Black Death swept over Europe, a strange cult emerged: The Flagellants. They blamed themselves for the plague and sought forgiveness for their sins by whipping themselves in public displays of penance. They also blamed Jews, who they massacred.

Flagellants have been resurrected in the 21st century in the form of epidemiologists and politicians who have shut down the global economy, put 26 million Americans out of work and bankrupted entire industries in the name of preventing an epidemic which is hardly worse than a bad flu season. Modern-day Flagellants are just as crazy as were the 14th century version.

~ Michael Belkin, Belkin Report, April 27, 2020

Joseph Campbell on history

And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still … put to use by reasonable men, or by madmen to nonsense and disaster.

~ Joseph Campbell in his Foreword to The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (1969)