THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Florian Kührer-Wielach / 4. 6. 2020

A virus is first of all a virus, an entity with which we have always lived together in this world and which can occasionally become an acute problem. What is new and malignant is not only this corona virus, but also the quality of the supposed powerlessness, the acute lack of alternatives, which causes us to shift all aspects of a regained ability to act into the world of tomorrow.

But already now we want to give the crisis a meaning, and it works quite well: just as its (stylized) appearance illustrates, the virus allows us to “dock” in many different ways. It becomes a discourse hub for ideological and eschatological dreams or nightmares. It is as if we had secretly longed for this crisis: to finally pause, time to discern the spirits, to create a new world while the old one perishes. Everything will be better, more human, greener.

More…