Crisis and Creativity - How COVID-19 impacted Social Networks’ uses in the Artistic sector

Abstract

Anarchist thinkers have long identified the jealousy inherent to the modern state; an exclusive sovereignty claimed against other nation states, secessionists, non-state geopolitical actors, and especially against independent organisation by the people themselves. However, under neo-liberalism, the centrality of the state has been eroded and much of its productive capacity and governing power has been ceded to private corporations and supranational bodies. Conceived thusly, the state no longer jealously guards its sovereignty, but hands it over willingly. The Covid-19 crisis appears to confirm this ‘unjealous’ ceding of productive capacity, with the UK government handing out billions of pounds to private corporations to carry out core services and meet essential needs. On closer inspection though, the neo-liberal principle of market competition has been absent during the crisis, and the cronyistic embrace between the government and private corporations has (further) blurred the distinction between state and capital. Moreover, the crisis has in fact enflamed the state’s inherent jealousies, as evident in attempts to co-opt and suppress the upwelling of mutual aid initiatives that have autonomously addressed peoples’ needs during the crisis.