Category Archives: Commentary

Gianfranco Sanguinetti: A virus removes the veil of bourgeois democracy

Sanguinetti proposes a reading of the COVID-19 pandemic which argues that the coronavirus has brought the pretensions of liberal, bourgeois democracy to an end. We now enter upon an age of open despotism. However problematic such a division of epochs … Continue reading

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COVID-19: Translating a pandemic politically (2)

Arundhati Roy, in an eloquent article on the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in india, concludes by writing … Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. … Continue reading

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Raoul Vaneigem: Life against capital and its pandemics

With gratitude to the notbored collective for sharing their latest translation of a very recent text by Vaneigem with Autonomies, we in turn share the same … People of the World, One More Effort! Raoul Vaneigem(1) The world changes from … Continue reading

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Reading the coronavirus with Ivan Illich

Autonomies welcomes a text generously shared by David Cayley (www.davidcayley.com), Canadian writer and radio host (Toronto), and author for many years of the Ideas program for the CBC Radio programme “Ideas”. Questions about the current pandemic from the point of … Continue reading

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Pandemic Visions

With the generosity of the author, we share a “fiction” which is threateningly and increasingly indistinguishable from “reality”. The Pandemic Community Nil Mata Reyes, 2020 01. Welcome to the pandemic community, a form of social belonging structured by the participatory … Continue reading

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Giorgio Agamben: Social Distancing

From the online site, Quodlibet … Where death waits for us is uncertain; let us look for him everywhere. The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learned to die has unlearned to serve. Michel de Montaigne Since … Continue reading

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Giorgio Agamben: Reflections on the pest

From the online site, Quodlibet … The following thoughts are not about the epidemic, but about what we can understand from the reactions it causes in men. It is therefore a question of reflecting on how easily an entire society … Continue reading

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COVID-19: Translating a pandemic politically

“We know that many suffer, but the state is there,” said the italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, after announcing a 400 million euro food voucher programme for those who have lost their source of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic … Continue reading

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Marcello Tari: A letter to friends from the desert

From lundi matin #235 (23/03/2020) … Dear friends, There are few things more comforting in life than writing letters to one’s dearest friends at a time like this. I hope that this one will find you healthy and beautiful, as … Continue reading

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Giorgio Agamben: Normalising the state of exception under the Covid-19 epidemic

What follows is an interview with Giorgio Agamben by Nicolas Truong for Le Monde (24/03/2020), where he analyses “the very serious ethical and political consequences” of the security measures applied to curb the pandemic. As Le Monde reserves full access … Continue reading

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