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Truth in the time of the corona crisis

BIOMAKT: Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has had several controversial statements about the management of the corona crisis. Agamben states that the media handling of the corona crisis in some perverse way has a similarity to the commercial advertising. And warns against a new, despotic security community.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

What we endure is, in addition to being an unheard-of manipulation of one's freedom, a gigantic counterfeiting operation of the true. "

That's what the acclaimed philosopher writes Giorgio Agamben on the publisher Quodlibet's website in the wake of the new decree presented by Italy's prime minister on April 26. The decree presented the new rules for phase 2, a cautious reopening of the country from May. It included a softening of what was in practice one curfew, and included the opening of parks and permission to visit the nearest ones.

It is in the essay "About True and False" that Agamben again comments on the Italian condition. The thinker who entered into the history of philosophy with his book series Holy man, signed up in the coronation debate at the end of February with an article under the heading "The invention of an epidemic", in which he asserted that the treatment of the "so-called" crisis was "frenetic, irrational and unfounded". Many people wanted to write off the meritorious philosopher already then, to deny the facts and overlook the explosive infection. But instead of disappearing from the public, Agamben has taken up more and more space.

Verification of facts

In his essay published April 28, Agamben wrote that the new decree that is expected to continue to violate constitutional freedom, but equally important, he believes that it conflicts with a human right without root in constitutions: namely the right to truth. In doing so, Agamben focuses on an aspect of the corona crisis he has not previously touched upon.

To give a daily figure of death without relating it to annual mortality in the same period is not
just dangerous, but also meaningless.

He puts little in between. According to Agamben, there is a forgery of the true in Italy. Advertising has awaited us for hypertensive, compelling sales that claim no truth. Rather, we know that advertising is not true. This phenomenon has also entered the political sphere, where there are a number of cases of utterances that do not necessarily invoke truth.

It is in the light of this that Agamben has studied information during the corona crisis. He describes it as a whole new situation, since the true and untrue passively accepted by the citizens now has a pervasive impact on their daily lives and liberties. This acceptance, according to Agamben, takes place without an elementary verification of the (death) figures that practically operate as legislators in Italy. This is despite the fact that such verification is available to everyone, for example by examining how the corona counts are counted or comparing them with the mortality of other diseases.

Covid-19 death toll

The Italian philosopher claims that the way information about the epidemic is presented is "generic" and "without scientific criteria". From an cognitive point of view, he believes it is obvious that giving a daily figure on death without relating it to annual mortality in the same period and without specifying the actual cause of death is not only dangerous but also meaningless.

Yet this is exactly what happens, every single day, without anyone seeming to notice.

Among other things, the president of the Italian National Institute of Statistics presented a report showing that covid-19 death rates are lower than the same figure for respiratory illnesses the previous two years. He writes: "It is as if this relationship does not exist, just as one does not take into account – as it is even acknowledged – that the positive patient who died of a heart attack or any other reason also counts as a victim of covid-19. "

Photo: pixabay

Similarities with advertising

On this basis, Agamben states that the media handling of the corona crisis has in some perverse way a similarity to the commercial advertisingn. Why is it that even if we document falsehoods in the numbers that govern our lives today, we continue to take them for granted? He writes: "It is as if the lie is being held true precisely because, as with advertising, one does not hide its falsity."

He concludes: “Mankind is entering a phase in its history where truth is reduced to a moment in the false movement. The true is the false discourse that must be kept true even when its non-truth is presented. In this way it is language itself, as a place of manifestation of truth, which is deprived of men. They can now only observe silently […]. [E] every one must have the courage to uncompromisingly seek the highest good: a true word. "

Far despotism

Agamben's attempt to explain the contemporary discourse of truth should be understood in light of his earlier contributions to the debate. In an interview with La Verità on April 22, he stated that today's state control bodies can lead to a new and worse despotism than ever before. He also stated that there are already dangerous, albeit temporary, revocations of the principle of power distribution.

The crisis of truth is related to science, which is good and good. Nevertheless, it is not the case that doctors and researchers are necessarily fit to make decisions that are ultimately ethical and political.

Today's states use the desire for security to sacrifice citizens' freedom and increase their power.

“The researchers follow their own reasons, which are set by the research interests and in the name of the research – as history clearly shows. They may be able to act without moral doubts, "Agamben points out, referring to Nazism. Then in the interview he draws parallels back to the Middle Ages.

“Theologians declared that they could not clearly define what God is, but in his name they dictated the rules of conduct for people and did not hesitate to burn heretics. Virologists admit that they do not know exactly what a virus is, but in its name they pretend to decide how humans live. ”

Advertising has awaited us for hypertensive, compelling sales that make no claim
in truth.

However, one of the many differences is the new power that emerged in the 1800th century, which the French philosopher Michel Foucault defined as "biopower". The French described the movement of sovereign power from right to take life or let live to the right to bring about life or oh let die. For Agamben, the corona crisis stands as a continuation of this tradition, where today's states use the desire for security – implemented by those who satisfy it – to sacrifice citizens' freedom and increase their power.

The coronation measures appear to be a kind of consummation of the slippery transition from a political human view that saw citizens as autonomous, rights-carrying individuals, to one who sees them as vulnerable and dangerous bodies that must be protected and secured against others and themselves. Thus, the corona crisis has become a radicalization of what the American political scientists call one Security State, a state that can, for security reasons, such as public health, impose any restriction on individual freedom and construct a powerful monopoly of truth.

The naked life

A security society, filled with vulnerable and dangerous bodies rather than autonomous individuals, is also in danger of reducing citizens' lives to the purely biological, to what in Agamben's conceptual world is called "the naked life". Today's European language has only one word for life where the ancient Greeks had two: bios (how to live) and zoē (the biological fact that one lives). The loss of this distinction is central to Agambens biophilosophy. He is of the opinion that life in a political context today has a strong tendency to refer only to zoē, the purely biological state of being alive, and not to bios, to how life in a society is filled and lived.

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