Slavoj Zizek, our favorite Youtuber Philosopher
(and even without being Youtuber)
is not able to dissapoint us not even in times of crisis
Less than a week ago and writing in a speed
in which I took advantage on making this video
the Slavic was the first one that wrote an essay
about this particular situation that the world is going through
And being as polemic as always, would write in his notebook the phrase:
"The options that we face are: Barbarism or some kind of reimagined Communism"
Right? Wrong? Welcome to the "Cortado Coffee" N°10
This is "Cafe Kyoto"
"The Book"
Without messing around, the name of the book
introduces ourselves perfectly to what we
are going to see on the next pages
The Book is titled: "Pan(dem)ic"! Covid-19 shakes the World"
creating a word game between "Panic" and "Pandemic"
Besides doing an analysis about the panic,
he also critizes harshly the role that the states plays in those situations
the inability of Capitalism on being able to contain the markets in times of crisis
the inequality and our role as citizens in this situation
Besides (and what leads to this analysis)
is when Zizek talks about the role of the media
telling us to calm down and then
it shows us a series of slideshow
which its content does not make us sigh from relief
but instead making a calling to a massive psychosis
and unchaining our most primitive and funeral version of ourselves
And even if I introduced this in another "Cafe Cortado"
with this I'm going to start this monologue
"The Panic"
Slavoj says that the Panic has its own logic
and expresses this in a extraordinary way
through the comparation of the actual situation pf the UK
and an anecdote of his cold soviet youthhood
in the dead Yugoslavia
The fact that in the United Kingdom, because of the panic caused by the Covid-19
even the toilet papers started to dissapear from the stores
"It reminds me of an weird incident of my youthhood
with the toilet paper of the old "Socialist Yugoslavia"
Suddenly a rumor which claimed that
there was not enough toilet paper avaible appeared
The autorities assured that there was enough toilet paper for the regular use
and suprisingly this was not only true
but most people also believed that it was true
Nevertheless the regular consumer thought it this way:
"I know that there is enough toilet paper and the rumor is fake
but...what happens if some people take this rumor seriously
and in a panic rampage start to buy the stockpile
of toilet paper creating a real shortage
so the best thing to do is buy more toilet paper."
This way Zizek shows that it's not even necesary to believe
that other people will take the rumor seriously
It's enough to assume that others believe that there are people that takes the rumour seriously
and the effect remains the same
The problem is not the shortage, the problem is
that the people believe that there is or will be shortage
And this way everyone will go like a cow in a slaughterhouse
on a line to the closest Walmart and buying all the toilet paper
until running out of stock
Also the book talks about the importance that
(and in the last few years)
we had a few pandemics that preceded the giant that we face today
The Sars, the Ebola and H1N1, that in one way they had us holding to the chair
ended up not being a threat big enough
to lock ourselves inside (voluntarily or not) for 20 days or more
inside the four walls of our room
eating like pigs and reviving old sitcoms
which would ashame ourselves to admit in public
that we are seeing religiously through the whole quarantine
Even if we were convinced about the truth of these predictions
some way or another we didn't take it seriously
and we resisted on acting and participating
on the serious preparations
And until you convince yourself that we are in a
preamble of 28 days later
you are not going to move that oily orange finger
that you are licking for eating a whole bag of Doritos at 4 am
Then the philosopher says that
this contrast shows us that the panic
is not the adequate way to face a real threat
because when we react with panic we don't take the threat seriously
and we end up transforming it into a meme
even if we are not aware of it
Just think of the ridiculousness of the approach
on how important is to have enough toilet paper
during a mortal pandemic
So we close that paragraph with the following questions
What would be an appropiate reaction to this covid-19 pandemic?
What is it that we have to learn and do to face it in a serious way?
Useless Burocracy
Slavoj Zizek is not the first one to suggest
that the pandemic of Covid-19 is just
the grown up headcrab that goes before the raw baby
which holds the gravitational fissure
the you opened because you were not able to
reverse the resonance cascade
but that the one that will come after this one, will be a lot worse
And he is not talking about a deadlier virus or mutation
but a change in the system that holds the foundations of this world
Before the publishing of this book, Zizek proposed
in several ocassions that the epidemics of coronavirus
could give a new life impulse to the Communism
which clearly they laughed at it
But we look to the other side seeing that even though the Chinese
have the most part of responsability because they did not contained the virus fast enough
they were more efficient when controlling the damages
reducing the cases to 0 at least in the "Sodoma" itself called "Wuhan"
in contrast to Italy or Spain
that having more than 10.000 cases and a large pile of corpses
waiting to be buried in a common pit
they give themselves the privilege of walking on the streets
as if absolutely nothing is going on
Like telling them to stay home to a country that
had on their shoulders the weight of the second world war
was an act of disrespect
but it's not as Zizek throws flowers to the Chinese regime
but like he did in other ocassions
he does not blush at recognizing old vices of the communist
highlighting things like their limitations
Like the systematic negation of information
with the fear of showing bad news
to the ones in the high charges of the popular republic
and by so, to the public too
Showing in that way the weak face of a regime
which its functioning seems more like a calculator
than a society of human beings
In its book Slavoj would highlight how the pressure
of china to start working after the interruptions of the coronavirus
it is reviving an old tentation
which is adulterating data to show the officials what they want to see
and for us to take awareness about this phenomena
he tells us about the situation that is happening in the state of Zhejiang
an industrial center in the east cost with the production of electricity
Where the local factories were forced to reach the intake
of regular energy to show this data
how there is a resurgence in the production
making some companies to operate the machinery
even when their factories are totally empty
"A Selfish Crisis"
In this point you may be wondering
Why did I take the time to summarize the book of and old Slavic
that supports fraudulent totalitarian communist regimes?
Yes, indeed in this book Zizek would affirm
that the communism would be the most reasonable and functional option
for an post-coronavirus humanity
But...not the communism that you have in mind...
So...what does he mean by communism?
For this he would invite us to read the public declarations of the "W.H.O"
and said quote extracted from a periodistic article
which he highlights the most recent one
when redacting the essay and at the same time
showing off about how he could write a book in less than 15 days
The chief of the "W.H.O" Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
said the Thursday that even though the authorities of public health in all the world
have the capacity of fighting the propagation of the virus
the organization is worried about
that in some countries the level of political compromise
would not match the level of the threat
This is not an excercise, this is not the time to give up
this is not the moment for excuses
This is the moment to bring out the best of ourselves
All the countries planned similar scenarios for this kind of situation for decades
Now it's the time to act according to those plans
This epidemic can be slowed down but only with a collective, combined, integral focus
which involves all the machinery of the government
The communism which Zizek talks about in his book
is based on the most pure etymological meaning of the word
Like a common doctrine
Talks about the integral focus that goes beyond
the machinery of the individual governments
which is encompass the local mobilization of people outside of state control
and an strong efficient international coordination and collaboration
If a thousand people are diagnosed with breathing problems
it would be needed a great number
of breathing machinery and to obtain them
the state has to intervene directly in the same way
that intervenes in war conditions when thousands of weapons are needed
He also highlights that without the mutual cooperation
between different states, any efforts on stoping the pandemic will be in vain
This last point references in an almost prophetic way
to nations like USA and Brazil
which would take antithetical measurements from the rest of the region
Having more chances to surviving to a night in "Silent Hill"
that to a full week all paid in "Rio de Janeiro"
Zizek says that in this "Communism"
the information must be shared
and the plans must be coordinated from A to Z
following with the phrase "This is all I mean by the communism which is needed today"
With this Slavoj highlights the wrong posture of "Every country for itself"
Like a country which stops the exportation of vital resources
priorizing the situation inside of the country
than the ones with worst situations
Like the case of Argentina which
banned the entry of people from other countries
but in the Caribe they are more worried with
the lack of tourism, that even they would stimulate it
with great discounts of flight and hotels!
Well done Cuba! And it doesn't matter
how much doctors are you sending to the rest of the world,
you are not going to fix the mistake that you did
"A Necessary Change"
Another point that Slavoj Zizek highlights in his book
Is how (And quoting) the epidemics
of Coronavirus not only points the limit
of the globalization of the market
they also point the limit even more fatal of nationalist populism
which insists in complete state sovereignty
with the example of "United States"
which salvation depends not only on Donald Trump and his officials
but also on us in a global collaboration
and does not appeal in a idealized solidarity between the people
but how this show us how solidarity and cooperation
are in the interest of surviving of each and every one of us
The communist focus defined by Slavoj
and according to him, is the only way in which we can
leave behind such a primitive thought.
And a deep reflectio is not necessary to see why he did this approach
Being completely cynical and evidencing the exception
that you are a Chinese citizen residing in China,
I have almost complete certainty that the pandemic in your country
was delivered by a rich person or at least
someone that can afford vacations on an external country
All of this starts with a person that comes down from a plane on monday
does his normal life for a week until suddenly
one day he feels sick and goes to the nearest hospital to get checked
Turns out that he is the "Patient Zero" in the whole country
and probably most of the people that were in contact with him
are now infected.
A month ago the first case in Argentina was reported
12 days ago we are all reclused in our houses
Some people have the privilege to work for great companies
which will get their paycheck while they stay home,
or they are people that can have an "Small Vacation" without salary
But on the other side we have informal workers
which incomes come from waking up everyday to work
and that this quarantine forces them to lock themselves up
to slowly watch how they start running out of food
slowly accepting the inevitable
trying not to starve or becoming biological threats
The Covid-19 revealed the biggest fails of our system
Inequality
And to end this pandemic we all have to play our parts
but also shows that we don't have the same resources to do so
The rich needs the poor to stay at home
because he didn't do so when he had to
One has Netflix, and the other one has hunger
Seems like this virus came to delete the ones that are not "Useful"
Old ones, weak ones and poor ones
This indicates us that we are preparing ourselves to promulgate
the most brutal logic of the surviving of the fittest?
So again, the choice that we are facing is:
"Barbarism or some kind of reimagined Communism?"
