The great catastrophes of humanity – be it the plague of 1347 or that of 1629, the Spanish flu of 1918, the tsunami of 2004, the Coronavirus of 2020 – are all showing that, despite scientific progress or the arrogance of the "Promethean syndrome", the human being is constantly in danger. Violently and unexpectedly dropped in an atypical situation, which has subverted values and annihilated ancient certainties, we keep convincing ourselves that nothing will be the same. We try to hypothesize scenarios, outline reference frames, look ahead to the future. Probably, after the first months of austerity, of virtuous assertions about moral commitments to restore the frugality of customs as well as considerations about the sense of death and destiny, we will be carried away by the joy of having survived and we just would like to forget what happened. We will be rejecting the memory of suffering, bereavement, hospitals and intensive care. We will try to forget painful traces and go back to saying yes to life.

BEYOND CORONAVIRUS: NATURE, TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN IDENTITY

MARIA ANNARUMMA
2020-01-01

Abstract

The great catastrophes of humanity – be it the plague of 1347 or that of 1629, the Spanish flu of 1918, the tsunami of 2004, the Coronavirus of 2020 – are all showing that, despite scientific progress or the arrogance of the "Promethean syndrome", the human being is constantly in danger. Violently and unexpectedly dropped in an atypical situation, which has subverted values and annihilated ancient certainties, we keep convincing ourselves that nothing will be the same. We try to hypothesize scenarios, outline reference frames, look ahead to the future. Probably, after the first months of austerity, of virtuous assertions about moral commitments to restore the frugality of customs as well as considerations about the sense of death and destiny, we will be carried away by the joy of having survived and we just would like to forget what happened. We will be rejecting the memory of suffering, bereavement, hospitals and intensive care. We will try to forget painful traces and go back to saying yes to life.
2020
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/4747695
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