On Vulnerability,Biopolitics,and Political Struggles: Some Thoughts on (Post)pandemic Times

Abstract

For many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic was experienced as a parenthesis in our individual and collective existences. At the same time, this parenthesis ran the affective spectrum from hope to despair, resilience to sorrow. Importantly, one’s socioeconomic background, gender, and race shaped the impact of the pandemic. While some were able to work online from home, others lost their jobs or had to turn to precarious activities. Some countries were able to manage the pandemic with proactive public health measures; other nations followed a laissez-faire approach with dramatic consequences. The digitalization of our daily lives—in particular digital-based consumption—was accelerated during the pandemic. Most of all, the pandemic exposed the radical vulnerability of our bodies, either directly through infection or infection of our loved ones, with, in many cases, tragic outcomes. This vulnerability was biological since the virus seemed to be—at first—out of control, using our human bodies to replicate; the pandemic exposed the basic traits of our human condition. This vulnerability was also political. Many governments were stultified, or oscillated from one strategy to another. Poor, or reckless, governance undermined the legitimacy of that governance; at the same time, a “warfare” rhetoric often shored up that legitimacy while justifying the erosion of rights.