![]() ![]() ![]() It’s hard to shake off a sense that Žižek, with the speed and efficiency of a just-in-time production line, has simply corralled events into a shape that fits his pre-existing interests and logical operations. “Political correctness”, one of the philosopher’s bugbears, is mentioned twice. An odd chapter on “Putogan”, a portmanteau of Russia and Turkey’s leaders, allows him to write about the refugee crisis, oddly implying that it is the main challenge facing European “operational unity” during the pandemic. Žižek describes himself as a “Christian atheist”, so it’s not a surprising start and is also a little too neat. ![]() The opening gambit is to use Jesus Christ’s injunction on resurrection to Mary – “Touch me not” – to explain how social distancing can underwrite solidarity. ![]() Each circles a different subject, very occasionally landing on the thesis: a “new form of what was once called communism” is needed to avoid this pandemic resolving into a global nightmare. Over the course of the short book, he enlists those typically Žižekian thinkers and tactics – Hegel, Lacan, an analogy for capitalism’s health derived from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill – to form 10 impressionistic chapters. In fact, Žižek wonders aloud whether he should exercise caution with his distinctive flights of conceptual fancy, given his “(as yet) safe external position” from the widespread suffering. But Pandemic!: Covid-19 Shakes the World is thin on humour. ![]()
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