The new coronavirus has given rise to an abundance of metaphors, all of them involving a major move away from the contexts in which such metaphors are commonly used. This, in itself, tells us a lot about the shock and astonishment generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The metaphors are but an attempt to tame the virus qua phenomenon. It is not an easy task, given that we are not even sure whether the virus is a natural or a social phenomenon.
Metaphors are a call to reality, an attempt to frame the virus in terms that we are able to grasp at the social, philosophical and cultural level. Far from being arbitrary, metaphors are intentional. They point to different types of action and conjure up different post-pandemic societies. I distinguish three metaphors: the virus as enemy, the virus as messenger, and the virus as pedagogue.
The virus as enemy is the favorite metaphor of governments. War falls, as it always will, within the exclusive competence of the state. Among all the tasks performed by the state, it is the one around which the broadest consensus can be found. The enemy metaphor is a double metaphor, in that it conceives of the fight against the virus as a war, and of the virus as the enemy to be beaten. The war metaphor is effective in its conveying of the gravity of the threat and the patriotic need for unity in the fight against that threat. This call for unity is especially useful in states recently hit by widespread social protests, as is the case with France (and the gilets jaunes demonstrations). War presupposes the use of extreme combat measures. It promotes a simplistic political narrative, of the ‘you’re either with us or against us’ type. An enemy is not to be persuaded or argued against, but to be eliminated.
Original Contents by Seminar, 733, 22-26
