https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/books/review/christopher-caldwell-age-of-entitlement.html?referringSource=articleShare > On Aug 23, 2020, at 9:31 AM, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > > > > Opinion > Meet the Philosopher Who Is Trying to Explain the Pandemic > Giorgio Agamben criticizes the “techno-medical despotism” of quarantines and > closings. > > > By Christopher Caldwell > Mr. Caldwell is the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: > Immigration, Islam and the West.” > NY Times, Aug. 21, 2020 > > > > > > > Giorgio Agamben’s position on the coronavirus has cost him considerable > support among members of the Italian intellectual > establishment.Credit...Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images > Stumping for regional candidates in Tuscany this month, Italy’s former > interior minister Matteo Salvini waved around a surgical mask — and pointedly > did not wear it. Covid-19 has taken more than 35,000 lives since it struck > Italy in January. But now the daily death toll is typically in single digits, > and Mr. Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigration League party, wants to > put the country back to work. “Italians are being held hostage, kept at a > distance, masked,” he hollered, “and meanwhile they let thousands of lowlifes > land their boats and do what they want, go where they want, spit, infect. > Enough is enough!” > > People cheered. But half of them kept their masks on. > > This is a common pattern in the Western countries (and American states) where > Covid-19 fatalities are dwindling. The arguments for freedom may be strong — > but they are put awfully crudely. The arguments for discipline and prevention > may often be resented — but they have a lot of scientific authority behind > them, and they carry the day. Better safe than sorry. Late last month, > Italy’s parliament voted to extend the government’s state of emergency until > Oct. 15. > > In a society that respects science, expertise confers power. That has good > results, but it brings a terrible problem: Illegitimate political power can > be disguised as expertise. This was a favorite idea of the French philosopher > Michel Foucault, who used it to explain how experts had expanded definitions > of criminality and sexual deviancy. One of Italy’s most celebrated thinkers, > Giorgio Agamben, has recently applied similar insights to the coronavirus, at > the risk of turning himself into a national pariah. > > In late February, Mr. Agamben began using the website of his publisher, > Quodlibet, to criticize the “techno-medical despotism” that the Italian > government was putting in place through quarantines and closings. Mr. > Agamben, 78, is a philosopher of language, art and meaning. Since 1995, he > has focused on what he calls the “archaeology” of Western political > institutions, devoting a monumental nine-volume work, “Homo Sacer,” to > excavating their hidden logic. Some of his earlier work was translated by > Michael Hardt, the Duke professor and co-author of the radical campus classic > “Empire.” > ADVERTISEMENT > Continue reading the main story > The part of the Italian intellectual establishment that calls itself > “radical” has been Mr. Agamben’s milieu for half a century. His position on > the coronavirus has cost him its support. Paolo Flores d’Arcais, the > influential editor of the bimonthly MicroMega, accused Mr. Agamben of > “ranting.” The newspapers La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera and Il Foglio > all called him a negazionista regarding the coronavirus, using a word > generally reserved for those who deny the Holocaust happened. Just as > unexpected as these repudiations was the sudden receptivity to Mr. Agamben’s > recondite philosophy in the pages of La Verità and Il Giornale, newspapers > more often sympathetic to Mr. Salvini’s League. > > Last month, Quodlibet published Mr. Agamben’s collected posts in an expanded > volume called “Where Are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics.” (That’s a rough > translation; the book does not yet exist in English.) In hindsight, Mr. > Agamben missed a few things in the first days of the coronavirus. For > instance, he relayed the National Research Council’s description of Covid-19 > as a kind of influenza — true enough in most cases, but far from the whole > story. Today, however, with the Italian crisis receding, and with a measure > of calm restored to the public discussion, we can see his book for what it > is: not a work of scientific crankery or crackpot policymaking but an > on-the-spot study of the link between power and knowledge. > > Give the gift they'll open every day. > Subscriptions to The Times. Starting at $25. > Mr. Agamben’s name may ring a bell for some Americans. He was the professor > who in 2004, at the height of the “war on terror,” was so alarmed by the new > U.S. fingerprinting requirements for foreign visitors that he gave up a post > at New York University rather than submit to them. He warned that such data > collection was only passing itself off as an emergency measure; it would > inevitably become a normal part of peacetime life. > > His argument about the coronavirus runs along similar lines: The emergency > declared by public-health experts replaces the discredited narrative of > “national security experts” as a pretext for withdrawing rights and privacy > from citizens. “Biosecurity” now serves as a reason for governments to rule > in terms of “worst-case scenarios.” This means there is no level of cases or > deaths below which locking down an entire nation of 60 million becomes > unreasonable. Many European governments, including Italy’s, have developed > national contact tracing apps that allow them to track their citizens using > cellphones. > Editors’ Picks > > > 11 of Our Best Weekend Reads > > > Sabudana Khichdi Is Your New Favorite Comfort Food > > > Michelle Obama Urged Everyone to Vote. Her Necklace Spelled It Out. > > Continue reading the main story > ADVERTISEMENT > Continue reading the main story > Wars have bequeathed to peacetime a “series of fateful technologies,” Mr. > Agamben reminds us, from barbed wire to nuclear power plants. Such > innovations tend to be ones that elites were already agitating for, or that > align with their interests. Epidemics, he suggests, are no different. He > believes that the fateful inheritance of the coronavirus will be social > distancing. He is puzzled by the term, “which appeared simultaneously around > the world as if it had been prepared in advance.” The expression, he notes, > “is not ‘physical’ or ‘personal’ distancing, as would be normal if we were > describing a medical measure, but ‘social’ distancing.” > > Image > Nurses practiced social distancing while protesting for better working > conditions following the coronavirus pandemic in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo > square, in June.Credit...Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press > His point is that social distancing is at least as much a political measure > as a public health one, realized so easily because it has been pushed for by > powerful forces. Some are straightforward vested interests. Mr. Agamben notes > (without naming him) that the former Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, > an evangelist for the digitized economy, was put in charge of Italy’s initial > transition out of lockdown. Social distancing, Mr. Agamben believes, has also > provided Italy’s politicians with a way of hindering spontaneous political > organization and stifling the robust intellectual dissent that universities > foster. > > The politics of the pandemic expose a deeper ethical, social and even > metaphysical erosion. Mr. Agamben cites Italians’ most beloved 19th-century > novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s “The Betrothed,” which describes how human > relations degenerated in Milan during the plague of 1630. People came to see > their neighbors not as fellow human beings but as spreaders of pestilence. As > panic set in, authorities executed those suspected of daubing houses with > plague germs. > > When a society loses its collective cool this way, the cost can be high. > Rich, atomized, diverse, our society has a weak spot, and the coronavirus has > found it. “For fear of getting sick,” Mr. Agamben writes, “Italians are ready > to sacrifice practically everything — their normal living conditions, their > social relations, their jobs, right down to their friendships, their loves, > their religious and political convictions.” > > In fact, “the threshold that separates humanity from barbarism has been > crossed,” Mr. Agamben continues, and the proof is in Italians’ treatment of > their dead. “How could we have accepted, in the name of a risk that we > couldn’t even quantify, not only that the people who are dear to us, and > human beings more generally, should have to die alone but also — and this is > something that had never happened before in all of history from Antigone to > today — that their corpses should be burned without a funeral?” > > Mr. Agamben has always been fascinated by such instances of common customs or > historic institutions getting emptied out of their long-held meanings. In > books less punchy and direct than the present one, he has described this > process with the word inoperosità. It means “idleness,” but idleness of a > kind that can generate new systems of belief and new dangers. Whatever it is, > it has made itself felt not just in Italy but in all Western societies in > recent months, perhaps in the United States most of all. > >
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