Claim Goethe Institut Claim Goethe Institut

USA

Day-Afterthoughts

Intellectuals and artists around the world on the social consequences of the pandemic © Kitty Kahane

A virus is showing us how globally networked and yet how fragile our public life is. What does the pandemic mean to and for each of us and for society as a whole?

Here are some responses from intellectuals and artists around the world with regard to our present predicament and what lies in store for us afterwards.

Rachida Lamrabet © Koenbroos

Brussels
 Rachida Lamrabet, Author

I see people dreaming and thinking out loud. I believe we have the ability to reimagine our world, to refute the dogma of “There is no alternative.” We could create a future that is better than the world we live in.
Bence Fliegauf © Bence Fliegauf

Budapest
 Bence Fliegauf, Author and Director

Covid Pandemic is a perfect occasion to update our value system. Without religion and the concept of God, our world is not a cold and empty square mesh. It’s a magically complex place. Do we really need Karma to behave fairly to each other? Do we really need the devil to understand the force of entropy? 

New Delhi
 Romila Thapar, Historian

Was globalization not meant to be improving standards of living, eliminating poverty, providing health care for all, education for everyone and the upholding of human rights and social justice? May we ask what happened? Can globalization be defended as a continuing future form? Today, all our aspirations are being cremated daily and one waits for the devastation of the earth.
Portraitbild von Michael Zichy in Graustufen; Zichy trägt Brille und kariertes Hemd und schaut schräg aus dem Bild © Michael Zichy

Salzburg
 Michael Zichy, Philosopher

The corona crisis has put the globally networked economic system on hold, thereby exposing its vulnerability; it is forcing states into massive debt and back inside their nation-state boundaries; and last but not least, it is plunging people into uncertainty, threatening their livelihood and subjecting them to extreme psychological pressure.
Head shot Oleg Nikiforov; he wears short hair and black rectangular glasses; in the background buildings © Oleg Nikiforov

Moscow
 Oleg Nikiforov, Publisher

My hope is a new unity of humanity, despising its “yesterday's” Babylonian scattering, in our laughing at the formal distinctions of races, classes, nations and historical circumstances. Indeed, the challenging power, opposing the mankind now as COVID-19, does not recognize these differences, – and why should we? 
Portrait of Anne Weber against a gray background; she has curly brown hair and is wearing a black sweatshirt © Anne Weber

Paris
 Anne Weber, writer and translator

President Macron spoke of war, a war that I, armed with soap and disinfectant, am supposed to fight mainly by holing up at home. Another war awaits me there: the war against myself and my fears, which no soap will wash away and for which there is no cure.
Square image of Eva Illouz against a brown backdrop; she wears short dark hair and holds a glas in her left hand Geisler-Fotopress © picture alliance

Jerusalem, Paris
 Eva Illouz, Professor for Sociology

I think that, because of the corona virus, the young people who see and experience firsthand what the collapse of the world may look like will know how to monitor the world better. Short of that, there will no longer be a public or a private interest to defend. It will become nasty and brutal, as the Philospher Thomas Hobbes said, it is about the state of men in nature.
Portrait of Georg Seeßlen, he has a white beard, wears glasses and a beig hat © Georg Seeßlen

Munich
 Georg Seeßlen, journalist

The crisis can’t go on forever, otherwise it wouldn’t be a crisis, but the end. The crisis is an interruption; whether it is also a break with the past remains to be seen. All sorts of different forces are at work in it; it is a period in which some forms of action are curtailed or even completely prohibited, while others are expanding.
Dan Perjovschi takes a selfie in a reflecting window; on the glass, two heads are drawn, underneath it says local and global © Dan Perjovschi

Bucharest
 Dan Perjovschi, Illustrator

Free to think. Forbidden to move. It is a slowdown shutdown sort of wake-up. We will never ever stop by will. We stop only by force. Global quarantine? Who would imagine? Borders closed inside Europe? European citizens forbidden to pass en route to their home country?
Portrait of Urvashi Butalia; she has long gray-black hair and smiles into the camera © Urvashi Butalia

Delhi
 Urvashi Butalia, Author and publisher

As I write, there are hundreds of thousands of informal workers are crowded together at the border Delhi, waiting to go to their villages. They have no food, no water and they are fully at risk. The lockdown is a luxury the rich can afford, for the poor, there’s nothing.
Portraitbild von Matti Bunzl; er trägt eine Brille und schaut nachdenklich © Matti Bunzl

Vienna
 Matti Bunzl, Museum director

What worries me is that the EU, yet again, is not playing the role it should be – nowhere near it, in fact. The coronavirus is the epitome of a crisis that does not stop at borders. So this is where we need unified, coordinated strategies. The epidemic absolutely must not lead to a resurgence of the nation-state.
Photo taken through an open window; outside the sky is almost dark © Susanne Kennedy

Berlin
 Susanne Kennedy, Theater director

We all want all the answers right now. We want to know everything that is going to happen. What is the world going to look like after this? Which consequences are we facing? What kind of utopia or dystopia is awaiting us? But we don’t have the answers yet. This needs time. Maybe a lot of time.
Nanjira Sambuli © World Wide Web Foundation

Nairobi
 Nanjira Sambuli, political scientist

The rug under which much of the country’s problems — mostly stemming from exclusionary politics and governance — had been swept, has been lifted. We must deal with the mess. The current administration finally has to work to survive.
Portrait of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne; he is sitting in a car and wears short hair and glasses © Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Colombo
 Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Author

If language is a way of denoting concepts and the relationships between them, the coronavirus has become the concept of an unknown future, plagued by recession, the retreat of freedoms formerly taken for granted, a world bending away from the rights of the individual and privileging those of the community.
Robert Alagjozovski © Foto-Credit

Skopje
 Robert Alagjozovski, Writer

The history of humanity is still a happy end, despite dystopia. We have survived until this day and we have shown readiness to change. We are rational beings with capacity and methods to learn from our mistakes and improve our behavior and society.
Portrait of Oriza Hirata © Oriza Hirata

Tokyo
 Oriza Hirata, Artistic director

I hope that the Japanese society will become more tolerant. I also hope that the over-concentration of the Tokyo population will change to a more decentralized structure. In times of crisis, we have to be careful that personal rights are not restricted again by the priority of the state of emergency.
Portrait of Génesis Alayón © Génesis Alayón

Caracas
 Génesis Alayón, Visual Artist

I can compare this to an endless play where we all act to be well. Since before I was born everyone was acting, “this is going to happen”. Many actors have left the scene and others were forced to leave the theatre. This pandemic has invaded the scene with an atmosphere of uncertainty, but this has to make us stronger.
Dossym Satpayev © Dossym Satpayev

Almaty
 Dossym Satpayev, Political scientist

The crisis situation that has emerged is a new object of research and a case study on crisis management. It is also a case study on human psychology in emergency situations, when many are out of their comfort zones. In Kazakhstan, it is a new challenge for the authorities and society, a kind of indicator which revealed many problems.
Ani Qananyan und Ed Tadevossian © Ani Qananyan und Ed Tadevossian

Jerewan
 Ani Qananyan and Ed Tadevossian, Artists

Like any deep wound, this, too, will leave a scar on the surface of mankind's evolution, but after two generations, fairy tales will be told about it. The human body will develop immunity, virologists will come up with a magic pill. 
Detach © Daniel Peace

Athens
 Detach, Curators

Our Covid-19 forced entertainment via Zoom/Skype/Houseparty or other video platforms is becoming our new multiple selfie. A new Lernaean Hydra in real time. A new mass pop perception/consumption of the screen has arrived. Check your resolution now!
Sampson Wong © Sampson Wong

Hongkong
 Sampson Wong, Artist

The hegemony of the authoritarian Chinese regime is finally facing a huge challenge to its incessant rise to power in the last decade. People around the world will remember that the Chinese government’s cover up and censorship were crucial factors that lead to a global pandemic.
Paul Diamond © Markus Stein

Wellington
 Paul Diamond, Author

After a month of enforced rest from rampant consumerism, will New Zealanders keep doing the things they did while they weren’t shopping? More broadly, the pandemic will force a rethink of the whole basis of our economy.
Top