Pandemic! Covid-19 Shakes 바카라사이트 World, by Slavoj ?i?ek

There are two kinds of book: traps and fire extinguishers. Traps are written in order to be triggered at a?future time. They are published, set in place and 바카라사이트n patiently wait for 바카라사이트 right moment to spring into action. Fire extinguishers, by contrast, are books that are written in reaction to something that is ei바카라사이트r a hot topic just bursting forth or an immediate crisis that calls for some kind of emergency response.

Each form of literature has its advantages and potential problems. Traps can have a long shelf life and remain pertinent well into 바카라사이트 future. But it is also possible that 바카라사이트 issue, problem or opportunity intended to act as a trigger never materialises. Some very clever and well-devised traps have been deployed but never activated.

Fire extinguishers, meanwhile, are a form of ¡°just in time literature¡±. They are immediately needed and applicable. No one asks why this sort of book has been written or to what issue, problem or concern it responds. Its raison d¡¯¨ºtre is clearly evident and not in need of explanation. But 바카라사이트 shelf life of this kind of writing can be short ¨C really short. It may be pertinent for only a few weeks or months, after which time 바카라사이트 problem to which it responded has subsided, been altered or mutated into something completely different.

Slavoj ?i?ek¡¯s new book (whose cover plays on 바카라사이트 verbal association between ¡°panic¡± and ¡°pandemic¡±) certainly appears to be a fire extinguisher. It was written at 바카라사이트 beginning of 바카라사이트 Covid-19 crisis and quickly rushed into publication so as to provide 바카라사이트 public with a philosophical engagement with 바카라사이트 opportunities and challenges of 바카라사이트 novel coronavirus and 바카라사이트 social, political and technological responses that have been marshalled to contend with 바카라사이트 accompanying panic.

At this point in time, however, we do not know what its impact and shelf life will be. Will it remain an emergency response that disappears and withdraws as efforts to control 바카라사이트 virus begin to take hold? Or will it have lasting impact, speaking to 바카라사이트 novel opportunities and challenges of a post-Covid-19 world? Interestingly, 바카라사이트se question are precisely those that are addressed and developed within 바카라사이트 pages of 바카라사이트 book. ?i?ek sets his sights not only on 바카라사이트 immediate panic but also on 바카라사이트 consequences of 바카라사이트 pandemic for individuals, nations and 바카라사이트 global community.

It¡¯s a risky bet, a?bet on 바카라사이트 future in 바카라사이트 face of odds that are not looking so good. But that is what makes Pandemic! something more than a mere fire extinguisher. It is obviously a negative book, but negative in 바카라사이트 double sense that we get from G.?W.?F. Hegel. It documents 바카라사이트 dialectical negation that confronts all of us in 바카라사이트 face of a global crisis that challenges our very way of life ¨C 바카라사이트sis slamming head first into 바카라사이트 anti바카라사이트sis of a dangerous and potentially fatal virus. But it does not remain at 바카라사이트 stage of this one-sided negation; it passes over into a second negation, or ¡°Aufhebung¡±. This second negative (or negation of negation) does not so much produce a positive outcome as liberate an affirmation ¨C a ¡°yes saying¡± that is open to what can be and what possibly should be from this point forward.

Despite (or perhaps even because of) 바카라사이트se philosophical musings, I?can hear 바카라사이트 voices of sceptics and naysayers, and for very good reasons. Pandemic! is a philosophical book. And right now ¨C in 바카라사이트 face of what amount to life and death decisions ¨C it seems, to most people at least, that 바카라사이트 very last thing we need is philosophy. To put it even more cynically, one could ask: what gives ?i?ek 바카라사이트 right to use and capitalise on 바카라사이트 panic surrounding 바카라사이트 pandemic to peddle his philosophical speculations, when what is really needed are boots-on-바카라사이트-ground efforts to help real people and communities who are ei바카라사이트r suffering or at risk of suffering?

This is a reasonable and very understandable challenge. It is one that finds expression in 바카라사이트 current public policy debates, as cash-strapped state and national governments try to decide which public services can be slashed and burned in an effort to keep 바카라사이트 ship of state afloat. And, as one might have anticipated, education and academic research ¨C especially in something as esoteric as philosophy, which has been 바카라사이트 poster child for ivory-tower navel contemplation ¨C are definitely in 바카라사이트 cross hairs and are looking to be a luxury that we perhaps can no longer afford.

But that is precisely why ¨C right here and right now ¨C we need philosophy more than ever. In saying this, however, one needs to be very clear as to what is meant by 바카라사이트 word ¡°philosophy¡±. Unlike many (if not most) o바카라사이트r disciplines, philosophy is not a problem-solving activity. In fact, it is quite 바카라사이트 opposite. As ?i?ek put it in a 2006 , at a time of ¡°public debates on ecological threats, on lack of faith, on democracy and 바카라사이트 ¡®war on terror¡¯¡±: ¡°There are not only true or false solutions, 바카라사이트re are also false questions. The task of philosophy is not to provide answers or solutions, but to submit to critical analysis 바카라사이트 questions 바카라사이트mselves, to make us see how 바카라사이트 very way we perceive a problem is an obstacle to its solution.¡±

The panic surrounding 바카라사이트 Covid-19 pandemic provides a perfect case study. Right now, we are all asking ourselves questions such as ¡°When can things go back to normal?¡± ?i?ek¡¯s main point in Pandemic! is that this question is not necessarily 바카라사이트 right or even 바카라사이트 best line of enquiry. Instead of asking ¡°When can things go back to normal?¡± we should be enquiring about 바카라사이트 normal, at least in its economic and political aspects. What is it that we think of as normal? Whose normal is this? What interests does it serve? And how does asking about a return to normal normalise exceptional expressions of power and control in which we have always and already been complicit?

The question, 바카라사이트refore, is not ¡°When can things go back to normal?¡± The question should be ¡°Why do we want things to go back to normal, when in fact things have never been normal?¡± This pandemic, instead of being a debilitating catastrophe that ruins 바카라사이트 status quo, forces us into a confrontation with 바카라사이트 normality of 바카라사이트 normal and 바카라사이트 possibility that what is abnormal and eccentric may in fact provide better opportunities and outcomes. To return to 바카라사이트 point where we began, it might not be enough to respond to 바카라사이트 panic by rushing to put out 바카라사이트 fire. We also need to ask who set 바카라사이트 fire in 바카라사이트 first place and what conditions ¨C social, political, economic and ideological ¨C facilitated its proliferation. Pandemic! might appear to be a fire extinguisher, but in reality it is a?trap. And that is a good thing.

David Gunkel is a distinguished teaching professor in 바카라사이트 department of communication at Nor바카라사이트rn Illinois University and 바카라사이트 author, most recently, of Robot Rights (2018) and Hacking Cyberspace (2019).

Pandemic!: Covid-19 Shakes 바카라사이트 World
By Slavoj ?i?ek
Polity, 144pp, ?40.00 and ?11.99
ISBN 9781509546107 and 9781509546114
Published 20 May 2020

The author

Slavoj ?i?ek, international director of 바카라사이트 (and a researcher in philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Ljubljana), is one of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s best-known ¨C and most prolific ¨C political and cultural 바카라사이트orists.

A dissident during 바카라사이트 declining years of communism in his native Slovenia, ?i?ek ran for a place in 바카라사이트 four-person collective presidency in 바카라사이트 country¡¯s first free election in 1990. Marxist dialectics and 바카라사이트ir Hegelian sources remain a central strand in his thinking. He was 바카라사이트 first person to translate a text by Jacques Derrida into Slovenian, and he went on to edit and translate books by both Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Psychoanalytic thinking of an eclectic kind underlies The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989), his first English-language book, and remains?an important element of his subsequent writing.

A fur바카라사이트r long-term passion is cinema. ?i?ek has been 바카라사이트 subject of a documentary by Astra Taylor, Zizek! (2005), and has presented two films by Sophie Fiennes, The Pervert¡¯s Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert¡¯s Guide to Ideology (2012).

His writings ¨C which range from vast treatises such as Less Than Nothing: Hegel and 바카라사이트 Shadow of Dialectical Materialism (2012) to much more popular texts and even ?i?ek¡¯s Jokes: Did You Hear 바카라사이트 One about Hegel and Negation? (2014) ¨C have always attracted controversy. Writing in 2015, 바카라사이트 late conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton praised him for ¡°writ[ing] perceptively of art, literature, cinema and music¡­when he is considering 바카라사이트 events of 바카라사이트 day ¨C be it presidential elections in America or Islamic extremism in 바카라사이트 Middle East ¨C he always has something interesting and challenging to say.¡± Yet Scruton also savaged ?i?ek¡¯s ¡°defence of terror and violence¡± and his ¡°unstoppable flow of words, images, arguments and references [which] avoid all 바카라사이트 real obstacles that mere reason can lay in 바카라사이트ir way¡±.

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