The Anthropological Shock
Anthropological shocks occur when many populations feel they have been subjected to horrendous events that leave indelible marks on their consciousness, will mark their memories forever, and will...
View ArticlePanic and reflexivity
From Zizek’s Pandemic! loc 439: What this contrast tells us is that panic is not a proper way to confront a real threat. When we react in panic, we do not take the threat seriously—we, on the contrary,...
View ArticleThe rich have much to lose, the poor do not
I found this passage from Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement pg 147 deeply unsettling to read in the context of the current crisis. The comparative aspect applies slightly less to Covid than it does...
View ArticleWhat’s been made visible by COVID-19 and what might become invisible once again
This is a lovely passage from Martin Parker in the introduction to his edited book, describing how this crisis has left the social structure starkly revealed. From pg 13: Like an acid eating away the...
View ArticleWhy do we spend so little time analysing the socio-economic catastrophes...
I like Peter Fleming’s idea of speculative negativity: haunting of present by those “dystopic and grisly futures that have not yet materialised … only faintly detectible in the signs which drift by on...
View ArticleThe metaverse and the next pandemic
In Reality+ David Chalmers suggests we might spend the next pandemic distracting ourselves in immersive virtual worlds which are indistinguishable from the non-virtual worlds. Real worlds with real...
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The accumulation of crises in comics
I spent a chunk of the bank holiday weekend reading 90s x-men comics for the first time in years. Particularly the story of how Charles Xavier, leader of the x-men, became the godlike villain...
View ArticleShock as a narrative vacuum
From Naomi Klein’s new book Doppelganger, in which she explores the relationship between the shock doctrine and how the pandemic catalysed conspiracy culture: A state of shock is what happens to us,...
View ArticleTheorising permanent instability and volatility as necessary rather than...
I’ve found James Meadway’s account of how instability and volatility have become necessary features of the environment immensely thought provoking, particularly with regards to how this troubles the...
View ArticleThe emerging system of eco-apartheid
I’ve been prone to seeing contemporary geopolitics in terms of a long interregnum, in which Gramsci’s new world cannot be born because cascading crises preclude systemic stabilisation. Even a...
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