Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World by Slavoj Žižek

For Žižek, such thinking constitutes “an exercise of social-constructivist reduction, i.e., denouncing on behalf of its social meaning.” Here Žižek notably disagrees with his Italian colleague Giorgio Agamben, who sees the current implementation of emergency measures around the world as reflecting an expansion of a so-called “state of exception” (an increase of state power at the expense of individual rights). This can be seen on both sides of the political spectrum, from the “reopen” protests to those on the left. One of those symptoms is the exaggerated attribution of agency to those same governments who’ve failed us. Reminiscing about his youth in Yugoslavia, Žižek recalls “when government officials regularly assured the public there was no reason to panic … we all took such assurances as a clear sign that they themselves were panicking.” While this failure exposes the impotence of our leaders, it also exacerbates the symptoms of public panic.

The government’s efforts to reassure us similarly fail. We have not properly grasped the danger: “When we react in panic, we do not take the threat seriously - we, on the contrary, trivialize it.”

Panic is already, therefore, a sign of failure. Žižek explains that rumors in times of crisis, even once they are dispelled, perpetuate panic: “I know there is enough toilet paper and the rumor is false, but what if some people take this rumor seriously and, in a panic, start to buy excessive reserves of toilet paper, causing an actual shortage?” We see this logic in action each time the media reassures us (yet again) that there is no need to panic, all the while cranking out statistics and stories designed to maintain their ratings via our alarm and uncertainty. The logic of panic, however, decrees that belief in the substance of rumors turns out to be of negligible importance. “Panic,” warns Žižek, “has a logic of its own.” Of course, the pernicious effects of rumors in uncertain times is a given. Rejecting these three temptations, Žižek posits a sober, unidealized assessment of the paths forward.

After all, unknown viruses aside, what is a pandemic beyond the panic of the people? In this small, 146-page book recently published by OR Books (all royalties will go to Médecins Sans Frontières), the self-proclaimed Marxist, Hegelian, and Lacanian provocateur argues that we should ignore three fallacious logics fostered by the panic/pandemic: the desire to succumb to the mysterious threat, the imbuing of the event with superstitious significance, and the machinations of panic itself. The cover of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s slim new volume Pandemic! Covid-19 Shakes the World spells it out: “PANIC!” stands prominently and, stuck in the middle, is “DEM” - the demos, or the people. Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes The World by Slavoj Žižek. But can that instinct be trusted in an increasingly barbaric world? “In a crisis we are all Socialists,” goes an old adage.

Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World by Slavoj Žižek