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themselves in such a dire situation that, for them, poverty is a grea-
ter threat than the virus.
Second, those who will really “go to work” are they, the poor,
while the rich will persist in their comfortable isolation. We should
always bear in mind that there are those who cannot self-isolate so
that’s some of us can do it - not only all those who made our iso-
lation possible (healthcare workers, food producers and those who
take care of its delivery, those who take care of electricity and water
supply, etc.etc.), but also refugees/migrants who simply have no
place (”home”) where to withdraw in self-isolation. How to explain
a need to keep social distance to thousands confined to a refugee
camp? Just recall the chaos in India when the government orde-
red a 14 days lockdown, with millions from the big cities trying to
reach the countryside…
All these new divisions point to the fatal limitation of the Left-
liberal worry that the enhanced social control triggered by the virus
threat will remain and constrain our freedom since individuals re-
duced to the panic of mere survival are ideal subjects of power. The
danger is very real – the extreme case is that of Viktor Orban who
passed a law which enables him to rule by decrees for an indefini-
te period of time. However, this worry misses what is effectively
going on today, which is almost the exact opposite: although those
in power are trying to make us responsible for the outcome of the
crisis (maintain the proper distance, follow our orders, each of you
is now responsible…), the reality is exactly the opposite one. The
message of us, the subjects, to the state power is: we gladly follow
your orders, but they are YOUR orders, and there is no guarantee
that our obeying them will fully work. The state power is in panic
because they know not only that they don’t control the situation,
they also know that we, their subjects, know this - the impotence of
power is revealed now.
We all know the classic scene from cartoons: the cat reaches a
precipice, but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no

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