Immunodemocracy

by Donatella Di Cesare, David Broder (Translator)

A stimulating and profound portrayal of “the breathing catastrophe” that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century, and what needs to come after.

Immunodemocracy offers a stimulating and profound portrayal of the epochal event that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century. Moving from the ecological question to the rule of experts, from the state of exception to immunitarian democracy, from rule by fear to the contagion of conspiracy theory, from forced distancing to digital control, Donatella Di Cesare examines how existence is already changing—and what its future political effects may be. In her own personal style, the author reconstructs the dramatic phases of what she calls "the breathing catastrophe." Coronavirus is a sovereign virus that skirts its way around the walls of patriotism and the sovereignists' imperious frontiers. And it reveals in all its terrible crudeness the immunitarian logic that excludes the weakest and hits the poorest.

The cordon sanitaire of disengagement risks expanding beyond all proportion. The disparity between the protected and the helpless—a challenge to any idea of justice—has never been so blatant. The virus has not introduced, but merely brought out into the open the ruthlessness of the capitalism that is now wrapping us in its devastating spiral, in its compulsive, asphyxial vortex. Is it our final warning? The violent global pandemic shows that it is impossible for us to survive if we don't help each other. We will need to protect ourselves from protection and the specter of absolute immunization. When breathing can no longer be taken for granted, we need to rethink our way of living together.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Nonfiction, Theory, Disability

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2021

About the author

Donatella Di Cesare (Rome, April 29, 1956) is an Italian philosopher, essayist and columnist who teaches Theoretical Philosophy at the "La Sapienza" University of Rome. She is one of the most present philosophers in the Italian and international public debate, both academic and media, collaborates with several newspapers and magazines including "L’Espresso" and "il Manifesto". Her books and essays are translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Croatian, Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Turkish, Chinese.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo interesting! Une trouvaille absolument par hasard dans une libraire anarchiste de East Van, où la couverture a absolument jouer un rôle capital dans mon achat. Pas déçu pantoute. L’autrice fait le tour de tout ce qui est pandémique et n’oublie rien, de l’analyse politico-sanitaire aux fake news, à la place et au traitement de la mort dans cette nouvelle ère post pandémique. Les sujets sont traités de façon relativement superficiels mais ça n’enlève rien a l’essai. J’ai toujours de la misère à me concentrer dans une lecture philosophique/plus concrète donc j’ai retenu probablement comme 40% mais à relire absolument à moment donné.

[javor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the immunitarian logic of liberal democracy through the lens of Foucauldian biopolitics and Agamben’s state of exception. Being written in 2021, I’d be interested in how this book would reckon with the state of things in 2024, where the pandemic broadly speaking did not lead to new openings in forms-of-life but rather to a more total closure, a complete disavowal of the pandemic as an ongoing phenomenon, the collective decision to essentially abandon the immunocompromised for the sake of continued bourgeois normalcy, a global swing to the far-right, and so on. I’d imagine that Di Cesare might see the latter as a response to the unsettling of (bodily, national, etc.) sovereignty by the virus, in which the ego is forcibly reconstituted through psychotic defenses and the construction of a culpable Other at all costs, found anywhere and everywhere domestically and abroad. In any case, very poignant little book that helps shed light on the pandemic’s role in the current political situation.

[Makala Hande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Di Cesare goes on a rant about how a pandemic lures us further and further into a capitalistic dumpster fire and says a whole lot of nothing.

[Parker Piccolo Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in conversation with Zizek's Pandemic, and I found it equally as stimulating, and only slightly less readable. She managed to cover an immense range of topics, from environmental to economic degradation, conspiracy theories to discipline, but I didn't find that her breadth minimized her ability to sufficiently cover all of her ideas.

[Jack Tecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and quick read. Obviously some left leaning sentiments rationalized, I was reading what I wanted to hear a bit here. A perspective I haven’t seen before.

Good brain food! Not five stars as not a lot of solutions being being offered, which makes it stick with you in a pretty depressing way. Such as it is with the last few years.

[Miles Xavier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. Prods at my personal limits, and that’s not bad. This book provides a poignant reminder of the immunodemocratic politics of 2020 - immunising ourselves from the other, ignoring them, avoiding contagion, avoiding death. This book lost me at times to be frank, not on the language or ideas themselves, but on their tenability. Would’ve been interesting to have read this at its release.

[harlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
some parts were good, but some other parts seemed contradictory. i like the concept explored of “shared vulnerability”. i think i was hoping for a book more about disability activism in the time of covid, and this was not that, also it is sliiiiightly dated.

[Chris Nagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The butler did it.

It's good that leftist thinkers are writing about the COVID-19 pandemic, government/governance, capitalism, inequality, etc. This is a good example of that genre.