A Panoptic Vision of the World: Can a State of Emergency Become a Regular One?

Abstract

The object of interpretation of this text is several social aspects of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic which have equivocal and contradictory meanings: state of emergency/crisis, emergency measures, civil and human rights/restrictions to human rights, freedom/limitation of freedom. The basic interpretative and conceptual tools used are the terms ‘panopticon’ and ‘panopticism’, whose archetypal patterns point to systematic and systemic damage to the uni-versal human rights to freedom and privacy. This damage occurs by legalizing the surveillance and control of citizens, thus becoming more akin to radical surveillance. The pandemic is seen as an excuse to renew the panoptic vision of the world. The contemporary pandemic surveillance of citizens dissolves the boundaries between the real and the virtual and creates new boundaries of freedom on several levels: movement, speech, work, communication, existence. Some of these limitations of human rights and freedoms relate to the elderly population. This analysis shows the danger of prolonging and legalizing emergency measures in circumstances when, realistically, there is no state of emergency. This poses a question: can a state of emergency become a regular state? The New Normal has the power to create alienated individuals and an alienated society.