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fast global economic development, cultural habits, exploding in-
ternational communication, etc., etc.? The epidemics is a mixture
in which natural, economic and cultural processes are inextricably
mixed… As an unabashed philosopher of subjectivity, I think one
should nonetheless add two points here. First, as humans, we are
one among the actants in a complex assemblage; however, it is only
and precisely as subjects that we are able to adopt the “inhuman
view” from which we can (partially, at least) grasp the assemblage
of actants part of which we are.
Second, “values and beliefs” should not be simply ignored: they
do play an important role and should be treated as a specific mode
of assemblage. Religion is a complex texture of dogmas, institu-
tions, social and individual practices, and intimate experiences
where what is said and what remains unsaid is intertwined in often
unexpected ways – perhaps, a full scientific proof that god exists
would be the greatest surprise for the believer him/herself… A si-
milar complexity (or, rather, a rift) helps us to understand the bela-
tedness of our reaction to the coronavirus spread – our knowledge
was out of sync with our spontaneous beliefs.
Recall the second murder (of the detective Arbogast) from
Hitchcock’s Psycho: this murder is a surprise, even more than the
notorious shower murder. The shower murder was a totally unex-
pected surprise, while here, we knew something shocking will
happen, the whole scene is shot to indicate it, but we are still sur-
prised when it happens... why? How can the greatest surprise occur
precisely when what we were told will happen really happens? The
obvious answer is: because we didn’t really believe it will happen.
And did not something similar happen with the spread of coro-
navirus: epidemologists were warning us the virus will reach us,
they gave precise predictions which are now proven accurate. Greta
Thunberg was right when she claims that politicians should listen
to science, but we were prone to trust more our “hunches” (Trump
used this word) – and it is easy to understand why. What is now

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