The COVID-19 pandemic is a factor (and an important one at that) in both disclosing and accelerating the free fall of humanity that no longer fits within the linear discourses of progress or regress, as was stated by the Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Michael Marder.
What are the greatest losses the world suffered last year – in the field of your expertise?
If your question relates to the Covid-19 pandemic, then, without a doubt, the greatest losses are measured in the numbers of human lives brought to an end by the disease. Economic indicators are utterly incommensurable with these, regardless of what insurance companies and other risk calculators want us to believe. At the same time, a terrible (and also incalculable) loss has to do with human intimacy, physical proximity, the possibilities to touch, hug or kiss. Far from extraneous additions to our daily lives, these are the necessary ingredients for wellbeing and psychological health. All the virtual connections we maintain with our family and friends online cannot fill in the void of that the interdiction of touch leaves behind.
Again, what have we achieved the most?
I cannot pinpoint any positive collective achievements from last year. At the very start of the pandemic, it was clear that people were not indifferent to the fate of their neighbors and, often, of complete strangers. Initially, everywhere around the world, small acts of kindness to the most vulnerable were evident (say, offers to buy groceries or medications for the elderly couple next door). People showed their appreciation for medical personnel bearing the brunt of the pandemic by clapping from their balconies. But such altruism and enthusiasm quickly faded and were replaced with indifference and even fatalism. The same goes for the state of the environment. The sharp decline in travel and some industrial activity due to lockdowns did not contribute substantively to improving the ecological situation around the world. Temporary clearing of the air and waterways is offset by the fact that it is, precisely temporary and, worse still, by the massive amounts of nonrecycled and nonrecyclable personal protective equipment (masks, gloves, single-use gown, etc.) now clogging the natural world.
Was this pandemic a step forward or backward for humanity? Why?
Before speaking about steps forward or back, it is worth questioning the narratives of progress and regress as such. Considering the state of the world prior to the pandemic, we can say that humanity has been not even sleepwalking but sleeprunning toward a disaster. The disaster is, in the first place, environmental. The planet is on a fast track to becoming unlivable for the human and many other animal and plant species that are now undergoing the sixth mass extinction. It is also an economic and political disaster of growing global inequalities, intensifying armed conflicts, massive displacements, creating populations of refugees. I could enumerate many more dimensions of this dire situation, but the point is that the pandemic has revealed the inequalities, precarities, imbalances, and so forth that had been more or less hidden from view. In my view, the pandemic is a factor (and an important one at that) in both disclosing and accelerating the free fall of humanity that no longer fits within the linear discourses of progress or regress.
What are the main trends that have emerged this year? How long will they last? What will be their development?
In terms of our daily existence, one of the major trends is its virtualization, the migration of work, schooling, entertainment, and human relations online. Again, this is something that has been happening for years now, and the Covid-19 pandemic has merely accelerated previous developments, also making them more widespread. If my analysis is correct, then the digitalization of every domain of human activity is here to stay. For most of us, the dividing lines between a workplace and a place of dwelling will be erased. Those who can stay at home and have a job are no longer working from home, but living at work. University education all over the world is moving online, and only the so-called elite schools will offer in-person instruction with small classes and nearly one-on-one tutoring by professors. The era of the movie theater seems to be over, and, with it, of the movies themselves. Instead, entertainment giants, such as Netflix, are specializing on series that have taken the place of cinematic sequels (and prequels). Personal interactions, discussions, conferences, public lectures and performances, are becoming more and more impersonal, with participants appearing in their small squares on the screen. The staying power of these developments means that the hope and aspiration of many to “go back to normal,” for instance, thanks to mass vaccination programs are not justified. The “new normal” is that of a predominantly online existence.
What will be the main global threats in the nearest future – in the sphere of your expertise? What will be their results?
If you allow me, I must question your very question: “the main global threats”—to whom? Because, as things stand now, there is no such thing as a unified global interest. What are threats to a vast majority of the planet’s population (whether human or not!) are promises to a handful of people who are obscenely enriched, capitalizing on these very threats. Take the devastation of the environment due to the use of fossil fuels. Board members of multinational oil, coal, and natural gas corporations are increasing their wealth, while their extractive activity and production of “conventional” energy pumps more CO2 into the atmosphere and augments the already catastrophic global warming. Similarly, security threats are not the refugees illegally residing in the countries, to which they have fled, but the economic and political forces that have created these refugee populations to begin with. Concerning the current and future pandemics, even here—I am afraid—the what is a global threat to all is an opportunity for enrichment to some.
What will be the main trends in the nearest future?
We have already talked about the digitalization of everyday life in nearly every sphere of human existence, a trend that is not likely to change any time soon. Hitech companies and their heads are not only profiting from this, but also gaining unprecedented control over the lives of people all over the world. Another tendency is the growth of the biotech industry, the makers of vaccines and experimental treatments for various diseases. They, too, hold the keys to the lives (and deaths) of global populations. I hope that you see the common thread in these trends: a few private companies are increasingly determining the existence of people around the world, from the most minute aspects of interactions, work, or leisure to the fundamental right to life.
What are your recommendations to this world?
Just as it is impossible to speak of homogeneous “global threats” or “global interests,” so it is awkward to issue a set of recommendation for “this world,” which, treated in such a way, turns into an abstraction. My recommendation, if you press me to give one, is to think. Not to develop intelligence (artificial or otherwise), not to accumulate facts or knowledge, not even to seek wisdom as a kind of panacea, but to think. The philosophers of the European Enlightenment wanted people to become autonomous through the exercise of reason, which they conflated with thinking. The use of reason, though, is only one aspect of thinking. Its other aspects entail a bodily mindfulness, a careful interpretation of emotions, the senses and sensibilities, a conscious approach to our being-together. Thinking is not concentrated in the brain alone, nor, even, in the entire sentient body. It is a way of cultivating our existence and coexistence with other human and nonhuman beings. There is no more urgent, as well as a more misunderstood, recommendation I can think of than learning how to think.
What are the ways to survive in this new world?
Let me ask you two things, in closing. Are we sure that this new world itself is going to survive? And, assuming that it does, is survival the supreme value, to which all else may be sacrificed?
