"Spirit is a Virus": A Review of Pan(dem)ic!

Attay Kremer

Abstract


Žižek’s new book — Pan(dem)ic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World — has been too easily dismissed. As readers, we are bombarded with reasons, from critiques to ridicule, to avoid it, or simply not to take it seriously. In this review, I argue that the Pan(dem)ic! contains a philosophical revolution that is directed at our extreme contemporary condition. The speculative judgement that Žižek suggests — “Spirit is a Virus” — embodies a call for the acceptance of the virality of humanity, and for the solidarity that comes with it. In this review, I explicate this judgement from the book and detail how it leads to “a new form of communism”, and a revolutionary new reading of Hegel. 


Keywords


Žižek; Philosophy; Hegel; Freud;

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References


Burroughs, W.S. and Weissner, C. (1986) Electronic revolution. Expanded media editions.

Žižek, S. (2020) Pan(dem)ic! Covid-19 Shakes the World. New York: OR Books.

Zupančič, A. (2008) Why Psychoanalysis: Three Interventions. Aarhus: NSU Press.


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