Abstract
Zizek’s book Pandemic! 2 bolsters the responsibility and position of philosophers in times of COVID-19. The introduction refers to the unfortunate seasonal workers and their critical situation during the pandemic. Zizek nullifies the generalization that COVID-19 has put us all in the same boat, and underscores the ingrained ‘class differences’. Chapter 1 critiques the public reaction to the administration’s order of the lockdown. The abstruse situation manufactured by the pandemic confounded the concourse of whether they should isolate themselves to avoid contamination or achieve herd immunity. The recurring nature of the pandemic is highlighted as a ‘weird immobility’. Zizek also speaks about ‘surveillance capitalism’ and the ‘wired brain’, some contemporary challenges that demand attention. Next, the political repercussions of the pandemic across nations are discussed.
Chapter 2 treats the health workers as the ‘new working class’. Such people suddenly emerged with the pandemic. Bruno Latour and Nikolaj Schultz understand them as the ‘geo social class’, whose material conditions of life are exploited. Chapter 3 touches on various other issues like global warming, lockdowns and so on. Agamben’s remark on the notion of rejecting the lockdown because it desecrates the basics of humanity is mentioned. The chapter also notes how the pandemic had pushed the authorities to form a Universal Basic Income, an idea smacking of communism, and made a corona-capitalism possible, on the other hand, that helped the billionaires.
Chapter 4 discusses the right-wing rhetoric of ‘nationalism’ and ‘traditional values’ that aspired to provide solutions to the pandemic. The chapter highlights some personal biases of philosophers (Thomas Jefferson, M. K. Gandhi’s names are mentioned) despite the universality of their ideas. Chapter 5 talks about the protests that were happening in Belarus aiming at ‘rejoining Western liberal-capitalist normality’ (p. 45). Here Zizek draws on the concept of le pere ou pire (the father or worse), which Lacan uses to explain how anti-patriarchal insurgence could produce another worse patriarch. Zizek hints at the nuances of the comparison between the liberal–democratic protests and the movements like ‘Black Lives Matter’. The chapter insinuates a bleak future of democracy pointing at the ‘weaknesses of the global capitalist system’ (p. 47).
Chapter 6 comments on sex in times of Coronavirus, and counter-reads the idea of sexuality at present. The chapter ponders sexual fantasy and sex toys that impacted people’s lives in quarantine. The chapter notes the ‘bodily contact’ as a ‘path to the spirit’ (p. 55). Chapter 7 comprehends the threat posed by the ‘wired brain’, a project on which Elon Musk’s Neuralink is working. It will purportedly connect people’s consciousness and create a ‘singularity’ by removing the need of a language. ‘Psychic distance’ will be lacking in such a wired society. Chapter 8 discusses the ‘new working class’ people that may emerge out of the ‘Screen New Deal’, a more sophisticated version of the Zoom Video Calls? Zizek points out the perils of complete control in the ‘No Touch Future’. Chapter 9 mentions activists like Greta Thunberg and their failure to carry out activism during the pandemic. Chapter 10 tries to see some Hollywood ‘end of the world’ movies in light of COVID-19, and argues how, unlike the plots of such movies, the pandemic did not eradicate human life in a blow, rather it dragged on and on without a visible end.
Chapter 11 compares the BBC crime series Death in Paradise and concurrent situations in the United States. How people were ‘erasing’ the capital’s crime by protesting the lockdown is noted here. Chapter 12 refers to a short film named The Escape (2017), and connects our pandemic-struck lives with its plot. The next chapter extends the discussion to the ‘red pill–blue pill’ scene from The Matrix (2000) and connects our understanding of the real reality. Zizek says that people had two options before them, either to accept the danger of COVID-19 or simply deny it. Chapter 14 unravels the lack of leadership across nations to fight such situations.
In “(NO TIME) TO CONCLUDE: THE WILL NOT TO KNOW”, Zizek talks disapprovingly about the reckless call of Donald Trump to ‘return to normality’ without taking safety measures. Zizek mentions the ‘hygiene freak’ incited by the virus and notes the psychological issues arising out of it like ‘melancholia’, ‘schizophrenia’, ‘paranoia’, ‘hysteria’ and so on. The Hegelian statement of ‘no lessons from history’ is read in parallel with people’s failure to fight the virus despite having knowledge about the preceding plagues. From the insight of a ‘state-controlled-society’ to the display of world leadership in moments of crisis, the next chapter philosophizes different issues, including the emergence of the ‘new normality’. Drawing on Freud’s understanding of dreams and psychoanalysis, Zizek reads the pandemic as an ‘intruder from external reality . . . that disturbs our smooth ideological sleep’ (p. 137). The chapter closes with Zizek’s thoughts that people’s disregard for the pandemic arises from a deep existential anxiety (p. 146).
The book ends with ‘Four Reflections’ on power, appearance and obscenity that discuss the obscene mannerisms of the new kind of masters and note the proliferation of obscenity. Drawing on Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis, Zizek reflects on the global society where everything is transparent (pp. 164–165) and highlights its drawback by referring to the Hegelian understanding of alienation as a condition of freedom (pp. 165, 170, 171). The ‘new right populism’, its differences from ‘old authoritarian populism (like Fascism)’ and how the former defies any ‘liberal formal politeness’ (p. 174–175) are noted here. Post-humanism is presented here as a trope to accept the inability to move beyond global capitalism. The book ends with some notes on the ‘new nature’, and man’s position in it.
Slavoj Zizek incredibly utilizes the Hegelian metaphysics, Lacanian psychoanalysis and Marxist dialectic in his encounter with the established knowledge system. Pandemic 2 has done a humongous job by providing a deep philosophical analysis of the recent pandemic. Readers across disciplines will find this book indeed thought-provoking. The complex organization of thoughts, references to contemporary phenomena and the inventive interpretation of the same add to the uniqueness of the book. Zizek not only lets his audience see things which they generally overlook, but also leads them to think deep into those.