Ivan Krastev: Už je zítra? Aneb jak pandemie mění Evropu

Abstract

What will the world look like after the coronavirus pandemic? And haven't we been living in it for some time? Didn't the pandemic just make long-term trends more obvious? How should national states and the European Union prepare for an economic crisis in the era of deglobalization? At the height of the coronavirus crisis, Ivan Krastev sparked worldwide interest with his article on the impact of the pandemic on future social changes. Now he follows up with an essay in which he examines the political and cultural consequences of Covid-19 as a laboratory social experiment. He brilliantly and provocatively analyzes the social impacts of the quarantine dystopia, the return of government interventions, closing the borders of nation states, the role of experts and crisis management in democratic and authoritarian states (big data government), ethical issues of health and economic measures, intergenerational and international solidarity. He combines political analysis and data from historical pandemic research with examples of literary works or philosophical treatises and shows the paradoxes of a transformed world, for whose inhabitants the pandemic is a basic common experience.