COVID-19 may herald a welcome reversal of the ‘post-truth’ turn, and an acceptance that facts matter and expertise counts; there are, however, many reasons not to embrace such reassertions of expert authority uncritically.
There is a forgetfulness present in the current crisis as we focus on the terrible tragedies unfolding in Western countries, especially the United States. These places are not the usual sites of such carnage—not on this epic scale.
While the coronavirus reinforces a fear of the urban it also reminds us of the urban-centric mindset that has consistently privileged urban life over lives elsewhere.
The crisis triggered by the pandemic will leave in its wake more inequality, more political tension, more militarism and more authoritarianism; social upheaval, civil strife and mass popular struggles will likely escalate.
The coronavirus pandemic is a perfect storm in which the failure of the state is only dwarfed by the failure of the nation to provide any kind of unified, collective response.
Without genuine oversight, openness and critique, this pandemic might change our social world in ways that are undesirable at best, and frightening at worst.
When the health emergency comes to an end we may be left with a global economy even more dependent on militarised accumulation than before the virus hit, and with the threat that the ruling groups will turn to war.
The Covid-19 crisis has forced a critical question upon us that perhaps, collectively, we have taken for granted: how does our bodily presence, now estranged from almost every other body, shape our social relationships?
Financial speculation, pillaging the state, and debt-driven growth were ‘fixes’ that could not address the underlying structural conditions that triggered the 2008 financial collapse.
Robert Dinapoli reflects on the rapid spread of the coronavirus through a series of vignettes tracing his disrupted journey from upstate New York back to Melbourne.
