From Slavoj Zizek’s PANDEMIC! 2 loc 575:
Physical distancing as a defense against the threat of contagion has led to intensified social connectivity—not only within quarantined families but outside of them (mostly through digital media)—and outbursts of physical closeness (raves, partying, etc.) have erupted in reaction to both: the message of the rave is not just bodily closeness but also less social control and thus more distance from society at large. What happened with the pandemic was not a simple shift from communal life to distancing but a more complex shift from one constellation of closeness and distancing to another. The fragile balance between communal life and the private sphere characteristic of pre-pandemic society is replaced by a new constellation in which the diminishing of space for actual/bodily social interaction (due to quarantines, etc.) doesn’t lead to more privacy but gives birth to new norms of social dependency and control—don’t forget that even drones were deployed to control us in quarantine.
Categories: Covid-19 Things to think about
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