Abstract
Existentially and conceptually the disruptive wake of Covid-19 is different from the kind of problems the global community has weathered in the past. My article draws on Alain Badiou’s notion of an “event”— something unpredictable in its local specificities and radically open in terms of its possible effects—to explore the ramifications of the pandemic. Badiou’s approach is distinctive in that it explores different kinds of social disruption and can help us grasp whether the pandemic might carry the seeds of a revolution. I explore the disruptive effects of Covid-19 by first defining Badiou’s notion of events, and then examine whether Covid-19 fits this definition. I argue that although the current pandemic does not satisfy all Badiou’s criteria, it nevertheless may precipitate an event because of the peculiar way it disrupts contemporary capitalism.
Highlights
Disruptive by nature, events like the current COVID-19 pandemic invite every kind of analysis, yet the sheer immediacy and scale of what is happening make it hard to discern all that is in play besides the obvious
The immediate challenge, is that if our current pandemic can precipitate an event in the sense defined by Badiou, this will not be decided or confirmed in the official registers: epidemiological facts, mortality rates, unemployment statistics, and so forth
Section Four concludes by arguing that COVID-19 has occasioned collective decisions that disrupt capitalism, yielding unprecedented socio-political consequences, and so tentatively fits Badiou’s notion of an event
Summary
Disruptive by nature, events like the current COVID-19 pandemic invite every kind of analysis, yet the sheer immediacy and scale of what is happening make it hard to discern all that is in play besides the obvious. Section Four concludes by arguing that COVID-19 has occasioned collective decisions that disrupt capitalism, yielding unprecedented socio-political consequences (especially in the US), and so tentatively fits Badiou’s notion of an event.
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