December 1, 2020 by

foucault on the state

Are recent street protests against globalization a good point of departure? Foucaultâs take on sex in modernity? Can we make the rules together? With his early concept of âtechnologies of the selfâ, for example, he showed how smokers, the sedentary and users of alcohol and other drugs feel guilt and police themselves (they might now even accept deferral for healthcare). Or should we try to overcome? Foucault elaborated the notion of Biopower and Biopolitics to describe the practice of modern nation states and their regulation of their subjects through "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations". For him, power didn't exclude, repress, censor, mask, and conceal. Foucault argued that such control was exercised by agencies outside of the state, extending to sociology and its companion social sciences. It may be possible that coordination and cooperation, brought about by smart mob technologies, will help us to acquire new forms of social power by organizing just in time and just in place. Can we mobilize counter-power to form a resistance against the pervasiveness of an increasingly intrusive electronic society that is trying to manage the information it is tracking and collecting? At least then we will know who has power and who doesn't. It became possible to do in private what had not been possible in public, notably, to punish more people more discretely over a longer period. This would allow for a system of continuous surveillance. Michel Foucault was born Paul-Michel Foucault in 1926 in Poitiers in western France. Above all else, Michel Foucault believed in the freedom of people. Where to start and end with Michel Foucault, a true innovator? By using knowledge and not just physical force to assert power, as reasoned by Foucault, the state positions itself to perpetuate and increase control over its people through the process of normalization. As such, Foucault argued that there is no "true self" to be found. This colony is the disciplinary form at its most extreme. Foucault’s main goal in the books is to disprove the idea that Western society had repressed sexuality since the 17th century and that sexuality had been something that society did not talk about. Perhaps the real power of smart mob technologies lies in their ability to act as agents of change; one group at a time, one place at a time. I cannot resist a quick digression! Foucault at the Movies is an invaluable addition to our understanding of Foucault’s thought. 1-31. Along with other social theorists, Foucault believed that knowledge is always a form of power, but he took it a step further and told us that knowledge can be gained from power; producing it, not preventing it. Isn't that the most important question? Consider a prison constructed with a central tower occupied by prison officers and surrounded by a circular arrangement of cells. Foucault was the main organizer of a group formed outside the prison, in effect as an outgrowth of this struggle, the Groupe d’i… Can local cooperation and resistance make a difference globally? A special source of interest was the changing nature of governmentalities, that is, the practices and techniques by means of which control is exercised over people. But what happens to all the knowledge that is collected through mechanisms of power? As a philosophical historian and an observer of human relations, his work focused on the dominant genealogical and archaeological knowledge systems and practices, tracking them through different historical eras, including the social contexts that were in place that permitted change - the nature of power in society. Qualifying 20th century notions of progression and emancipation, he accented: (a) a novel focus on the individual and his/her body, plus an expectation of/requirement for self-control; and (b) a no less novel focusing on the regulation of populations âas a wholeâ, legitimized through notions of population growth, health, life expectancy and so on. Governmentality, approach to the study of power that emphasizes the governing of people’s conduct through positive means rather than the sovereign power to formulate the law. Al-Rustom, H. Internal orientalism and the nation-state order: Turkey, armenians, and the writing of history (2020) Ariel, 51 (4), pp. The Subject and Power — Foucault, Michel. Moreover, as Habermas contends, post-structuralist/postmodernist relativistic stances are neo-conservative in that they allow for no rationally compelling opposition to the status quo. Who determines what our rights are? In my view a number of positives accrue from his theories. Foucauldian âpowerâ is often contrasted with the idea of âdominationâ promulgated by conflict, Marxian and critical theory. Foucault tried to balance between the state theory, which revolves solely around essential properties of the state and the political theory, that gives too much importance to institutions but not practices. It is well known that Michel Foucault challenged the centrality of the state, advancing a view of the state as ‘decentered’. His accounts of the real-life, diffuse operations of power are subtle and instructive. If the disciplinary society has its roots in the prison system, it has also âswarmedâ out and into other aspects of society. More and more of our institutions â schools, hospitals â have come to resemble prisons (there are parallels with Goffmanâs âtotal institutionsâ here). They prescribed bromide because it dampened sexual impulses, and it just happened to be the first effective anticonvulsant! Let us begin with a brief definition of biopolitics and biopower, before situating these concepts within the broader context of Foucault’s oeuvre. Well, Foucault maintained that the insistent, uncompromising Victorian repression of sexuality led, paradoxically, to a preoccupation with it. On balance, he opted not to recommend genital surgery, but it was a close-run thing. It is a concept which provides a ‘scheme of intelligibility for a whole group of already established institutions and realities’. Over three decades after his death, Michel Foucault’s (1920–1984) legacy continues to impact upon the humanities. Their task was to produce bodies that were docile and capable. Or should we continue to adapt and submissively, quietly accept the prevailing philosophy of an increasingly monitored society? the State. The state for Foucault, from this perspective, “has no inherent propensities; more generally, the state has no essence.” Understanding power then, it has been argued, requires a reversal of the problematic of government and state: “the nature of the institution of the state is, Foucault thinks, a function of changes in For Foucault, the real danger was not necessarily that individuals are repressed by the social order but that they are "carefully fabricated in it" (Foucault, 1977), and because there is a penetration of power into the behaviour of individuals. Foucault discusses the centrality of state racism to the operation of bio-power, while this foregrounding of racism is noticeably absent from the final chapter of The History of Sexuality, Vol. All knowledge, once applied in the real world, has effects, and in that sense at least, 'becomes true. His deduction:? Leonard Lawlor, Penn State University Michel Foucault’s writings have led many of us to think differently. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Foucault’s basic argument is that governance in Europe undergoes two seismic mutations during the 17 th and 18 th centuries, concomitant with the decline of Christianity, the emergence of the sovereign state system, and the rise of the market economy. DOI: 10.1353/ari.2020.0026 Abstract This essay reads Edward Said's Orientalism not only as a history of the idea of the Orient in Europe but as a book of oppositional history that challenges institutions of power… Witness the fascination with (the evils of) masturbation. Power becomes more efficient through the mechanisms of observation, with knowledge following suit, always in search of "new objects of knowledge over all the surfaces on which power is exercised" (Foucault 1977). Not that they were working long hours closeted in a poorly ventilated Dickensian hell-hole, but that they were becoming over-excited (masturbating) whilst working treadle sewing machines. He was especially drawn to the analysis of the âinternal contradictionsâ and the ruptures, reversals and hiccups that characterize the history of humankind. In his view, knowledge is forever connected to power, and often wrote them in this way: power/knowledge. In his later reincarnation he retraced his theoretical steps towards his former leftism. In another context, women on the street at night typically feel troubled by a âmale gazeâ whether or not any men are actually in the vicinity. “The state,” Foucault explains, “is superstructural in relation to a whole series of power networks that invest the body, sexuality, the family, kinship, knowledge, technology, and so forth” (Foucault, 1980, p. 123). Foucault, letâs recognize at the outset, rejected the notion that history unfolds in a linear and unidirectional fashion. Prisoners would feel under permanent observation from the tower whether they were actually being watched or not: hence Foucaultâs concept of âthe gazeâ. Following are excerpts from an interview with Michel Foucault, French philosopher, psychiatrist and historian, and author of "The Order of Things" and "Madness and Civilization." And on sex? Instead of using violent methods, such as torture, and placing prisoners in dungeons that were used for centuries in monarchial states around the world, the progressive modern democratic state needed a different sort of system to regulate its citizens. Those with power can determine what is normal (and acceptable) and abnormal (and unacceptable). But his political philosophy emanates from his skepticism about the assumption (and it was a mere assumption until Foucault called it into question) that the only real power is sovereign power. Through observation, new knowledge is produced. In Madness and Civilization he built on these foundations, again stressing that while psychiatrists make occasional determinate judgements, patients themselves can and do judge themselves continuously. And the negatives? Foucault did not view the effects of power negatively. For example, in several of his books, including Discipline and Punish, and The Will to know, his reading of the “power” propose an unusal interpretation. Do read Foucault. Or should we just surrender to it? Do his observations on film introduce us to fresh ways of seeing? In Discipline and Punish Foucault examined the prison system between 1757 and the 1830s. His notion of governmentality, for all its purchase, glosses over what people with capital and the power it purchases âdoâ to those unable – largely due to what Archer calls their natal or âinvoluntaryâ placement in society – to resist being exploited (via relations of class) or oppressed (via relations of state/command). MICHEL FOUCAULT's understanding of power changes between his early work on institutions (Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, Discipline and Punish) and his later work on sexuality and governmentality.In the early work, Foucault sometimes gives a sense that power somehow inheres in institutions themselves rather than in the individuals that make those institutions function. He saw a different kind of (disciplinary) control in post-Victorian times. Foucault saw it as a producer of reality: "it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth" (Foucault 1977,194). Compare Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be systems of social control and people in a disciplinary situation and, 2.) The panopticon is at the core of what Foucault called the disciplinary society. The result of this surveillance is acceptance of regulations and docility - a normalization of sorts, stemming from the threat of discipline. One of the techniques/regulatory modes of power/knowledge that Foucault cited was the Panopticon, an architectural design put forth by Jeremy Bentham in the mid-19th Century for prisons, insane asylums, schools, hospitals, and factories. The 1977-78 lectures start with the theme of biopower, one of Foucault’s thought ‘fragments’ 2 M Foucault, ‘Two Lectures’ in M Foucault, Power/Knowledge (C Gordon, ed; C Gordon and others, trs) (Longman, London 1980) 78, 79. This research on prisons began in activism. It … Foucault never denied the reality of state power in the Hobbesian sense. Victorian physicians held that epilepsy was caused by persistent masturbation. First, he rightly documented post-Hobbesian and âpost-sovereigntyâ modes of rule or governance. From the 1970s on,Foucault was very active politically. Suitable behaviour is achieved not through total surveillance, but by panoptic discipline and inducing a population to conform by the internalization of this reality. How were prison rules underwritten? In short, biopolitics can be understood as a political rationality which takes the administration of life and populations as its subject: ‘to ensure, sustain, and multiply life, to put this life in order’.9Note 2 above, 138. Rather so, the "self" is constituted/created in activities such as the ones employed to "find" the "self". The actions of the observer are based upon this monitoring and the behaviours he sees exhibited; the more one observes, the more powerful one becomes. But there you go. When only certain people or groups of people control knowledge, oppression is a possibility. Foucault famously drew on Benthamâs notion of the panopticon. Foucault says that "by being combined and generalized, they attained a level at which the formation of knowledge and the increase in power regularly reinforce one another in a circular process" (Foucault 1977). Foucault says it is better to forget the State in our struggle against power, and instead, concentrate on local struggles. Foucault painted us a picture but left it up to us to create a process for resistance, and to figure out how to resolve conflicts ourselves. He also realized that as individuals, we react to situations in different ways. Less philosophically and more sociologically, I would suggest that Foucault is stronger on how power works than on why. Foucault saw the Gaullists and Communists as belonging to the “social-statist” camp, in the terminology of the second left, whereas the Giscardians and Rocardians seemed to represent a camp that was less focused on the state, contrasting it with the virtues of civil society and entrepreneurship. There is no way that an argument âforâ relativism can be other than non-relativistic. One form of punishment was – hiccup-by-hiccup – displaced by another. His father, Paul-André Foucault, was an eminent surgeon, who was the son of a local doctor also called Paul Foucault. Can we wage our own battles and develop some strategies to help us retain a semblance of individual anonymity and privacy? Prisoners would in effect control themselves. In what I will here insist we should call his âgrand narrativeâ at the end of grand narratives, he emphasized discontinuity and incoherence rather than continuity and coherence. In contrast to a disciplinarian form of power, governmentality is generally associated with … Key phrases and concepts drawn from Foucault’s historical work now form part of the everyday language of criticism and analysis. For Foucault, however, this new form of punishment promised and delivered greater and more binding control. New and wider-reaching systems of surveillance and control replaced more primitive and abrasive, but more circumscribed, predecessors. Biopower thus names the way in which biopolitics is put to work in society, and inv… Can smart mobs help by allowing us to organize even more appropriate and more mobilized counter-power protests, and offer a more sophisticated avenue for defending democratic liberties and personal rights? Perhaps for now we can take solace in the fact that there will necessarily be some state response and that, as has always been the case, the philosophers have only interpreted the world. His used his books as a vehicle to show the various factors that interact and collide in his analyzation of change and its effects. If power systems are already immersed in society, does smart mob technology offer any real opportunities for significant counter-power? Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, on October 15, 1926. But domination goes missing in Foucaultâs writings. This is part and parcel of what he termed the âmicrophysics of powerâ. For me at least there are several. Technologies of the self imply governmentality, or rule via a family of âgazesâ. (as opposed to cohesive theory) on the how of power. Indeed, there is a clear sense in which people govern themselves. He decried sociologies of origins and development and focused instead on social realities and phenomena at discrete points of time. Indeed, there is a clear sense in which people govern themselves. Thus, although Foucault will go on in the March 7, 1979 lecture to historicize contemporary anti-statism—or “state-phobia”—in terms of the various crises of the 20th century, it appears from his remarks in the earlier course that he views the civil society-state opposition as a key conceptual pair that has a venerable history. He wrote that power "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives" (Foucault 1980,30). Who or what should we develop a resistance against, if we want to see real change? Foucault's theory states that knowledge is power: Knowledge linked to power, not only assumes the authority of 'the truth' but has the power to make itself true. In the state of exception that Agamben and Foucault describe, governmental power is pure discipline. He gave us instruments of analysis, but offered no weapons. Can we develop our own system of power/knowledge as a form of resistance? Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Pivotal here is the control exercised by states over their citizenries. '. Constant observation acted as a control mechanism; a consciousness of constant surveillance is internalized. It marked the transition to a disciplinary power, with every movement supervised and all events recorded. The Panopticon offered a powerful and sophisticated internalized coercion, which was achieved through the constant observation of prisoners, each separated from the other, allowing no interaction, no communication. the power-knowledge concept. In Discipline and Punish Foucault examined the prison system between 1757 and the 1830s. This modern structure would allow guards to continually see inside each cell from their vantage point in a high central tower, unseen by the prisoners. Foucault's theory states that knowledge is power: For him, power exists everywhere and comes from everywhere; it was a key concept because it acts as a type of relation between people, a complex form of strategy, with the ability to secretly shape another's behaviour. Can we really expect that the right thing will be done just because? Foucault examines the system of state control in its social context and explains the connection between the gradual transition from centralized power to democratic rule and the changes in how societies punish their criminals. However, Foucault also emphasized the constant oppositional testing of hierarchical power. … This blog is another toe dipped into the water. Surrender to the unseen power that endeavours to control us from afar? The panopticon, Ritzer maintains in his Contemporary Sociological Theory and its Classical Roots (which I draw on here), is a specific example of hierarchical power: the superordinates construct the panopticon, the subordinates are its âinmatesâ. Grand narratives dipped into the water how power works than on why Foucault describe governmental. By ROGER-POL DROIT the carceral system to February 22, 1840: the date of state... Different ways exception that Agamben and Foucault describe, governmental power is pure Discipline is collected through of! 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Can this blessed ‘Corona’ situation possibly have an upside?

As a Life Coach, Steve feels a strong urge to help people not only to cope with this spell of uncertainty, but “hopefully to emerge from it stronger than we were before this crisis started; when, unfortunately, we took so much for granted. Like many similar global calamities before it, including world wars and pandemics, this virus-spread will change the world because mankind will make new discoveries and adapt new practices,” he tells me.

To make his points clearly, he starts by expressing a few basic – important – presuppositions, or concepts, about Life. Anyone who has ever attended his workshops, or talks, or even follows him on Facebook may find these familiar, even if somewhat controversial.

Why change? I ask. Change, he says, will always happen, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, and whether we’re ready for it or not. In fact, “change” is perhaps the only certainty we have during our lifetime.

When change happens externally—in our environment—we get affected too. Sometimes we are affected directly, at other times indirectly. Sometimes we are affected a lot, at other times, not.

“Since everything in life is connected, anything that happens anywhere in the world will affect everything else, even if perhaps in the minutest way, but a chain of events will have been precipitated. This is known as Cause and Effect. So, always expecting change is a good start. Accepting that certain events are inevitable because there is more in life that is out of our control than there is that’s within our personal power is another essential step. The past is what it is. The present is more within our control. Consequently, being able to expect, accept and even embrace change—whatever its form or outcome—is one of the most important life-skills anyone can have. The opening lines of the “Serenity Prayer” express this perfectly:

So, we have to accept that things go wrong, change our lives, shatter our dreams more often than not. Where do we go from here? His answer: “When things go wrong, what is ‘actually’ happening is that these events would not be going as we had planned or as we would have liked them to go. Here is a harsh truth: In the bigger picture, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way for things to go. This may sound strange, perhaps even objectionable, but in Nature everything happens out of necessity, not for the advantage of anything or anyone. Birth and Death are normal, ongoing events that are equally necessary and interconnected. Our false sense of ‘self-importance’ as a species makes us (humans) believe that whatever happens in the Universe is ‘about us,’ when we are merely a miniscule particle in the vastness of the ‘Big Picture’. Nothing is about us! We are simply minor components of an infinite whole. Of course, some things will change because of our actions— such as ‘climate change’ for example—but it’s not so much because we are in charge of anything. It is rather because we are participants in an ecological environment where every action can prompt a reaction.”

He then quotes Khalil Gibran from his monumental work The Prophet to illustrate our place in the scheme of existence. “When he is asked to speak to the fold about children, the prophet Almustafa says,

Life’s longing for itself. We need the humility to admit that we humans are incidental rather than instrumental to Life. Events will unfold as they must—one way or another—and we can either stress ourselves because we wanted them to unfold differently, or do our best to adopt and flow, surviving in the process as best we can.

Because we are complex living beings, we may not be able to control our emotional responses to our surroundings, but we can often adjust our reactions; hence our conscious thoughts about them and, as a result, we change our feelings.”

We know that we are different from one another and therefore we inevitably react differently to circumstances. Says Steve: “Yes, our personalities have been layered over the years from a mix of different experiences, to say the least, so no two persons are identical. Our behaviour, therefore, will be different as will be our response to the current situation. For some it will be more stressful than for others.”

“Stress,” he says, is an emotional response. “It varies between individuals. Those who generally do not seek external factors to energize themselves, also known as “introverts,” may find it easier to be indoors for prolonged periods, engaging themselves and remaining calm in their own or in limited company. They are used to it. Those who generally need a lot of interaction with other people in order to keep themselves fully charged, also known as “extroverts,” will probably react to the need for isolation with more stress and might struggle to keep calm and engaged while at home alone or in very limited company. They are not used to it.”

Then there are the anxious amongst us. What about them? “Those who are prone to “high anxiety,” meanwhile, need to be kept in our focus. They may need to be reminded that this is a temporary state of affairs. It is a storm and all storms eventually subside. This, too, shall pass! But we all need to be responsible and patient, appreciating the shelter and safety of our homes. My heart bleeds most for the lonely and the homeless. I wish we could all afford them more solidarity during this winter of dull global health.” Anxiety is a natural response that is intended to protect us, he comments: “Do not be surprised if you feel more anxious or worried than usual, especially at times like these. We humans are hard-wired to notice even the first signs of danger and our brain immediately goes into overdrive to keep our bodies safe. The snag is that this “stress response” that we experience as anxiety, as essential as it is for our survival, may be too much for some people to handle in certain circumstances. Our brain does not know when the bad news is fake or exaggerated, so it produces the same response as when we are faced with real danger.”

What can one do to reduce stress? “Use rationale to reason with yourself, as much as possible, to lessen your “imagination” of what might go wrong. Since anxiety results from ‘physiological’ responses in the body, it helps to focus on your breathing to help your brain slow down and calm the rest of your body, releasing better-feeling hormones. If these measures aren’t enough, seek help, but be aware that you are not alone. There is always help for anyone ready to help himself.”

Everyone seems to think that after this trying time our lives are going to change – some say radically, others in small ways. So, what does he read in his crystal ball about this? “These new circumstances are forcing us to change our ways of working, our daily habits and our attitude towards life. How lasting these changes will be remains to be seen. Some of us have had to adapt to working from home. Most of us have limited our movement outside the house to an absolute minimum. Some are in strict quarantine. At the moment, we are not buying clothes or gadgets, except perhaps online. Streets are quiet and entertainment outside the home is on hold. For the most part, we became more conscious about the need to economize on our consumption, realising that we need to keep our homes stocked perhaps for longer periods than originally thought. Hopefully, waste may also be greatly reduced as a result of our predicament.”

Steve continues and says that we seem to be returning to the Past in some ways. “This includes a renewed awareness in the need for public hygiene. During the Second World War, the British Ministry of Health issued posters with the catchy phrase, Coughs and Sneezes spread Diseases. This education was particularly important since people would often be huddled in bomb-shelters for extended periods. Evidently, this is still a good axiom for us to keep in mind too, now that we face such difficult times. The pendulum seems to be swinging toward the other extreme. Thanks to our greatly reduced transport by motor vehicles and an extensive suspension in air travel and tourism, even Mother Earth is having a break from our incessant fuming and polluting.”

We know only too well that the threats facing us are not small. They are economic as well as health- and wellbeing-related. “Let us not underestimate how this can affect us and others in our country, to what extent and for how much longer. What is lacking, perhaps, is a sense of urgency amongst many whose habitual irresponsible nature compels them to abuse their freedom, breaking rules and increasing the risk for others. That said, let us not exonerate ourselves from doing our part.”

Steve emphasises that everyone is connected. While some of us are more prone to certain consequences, no one is exempted. He gives a few examples: “Some people may be more financially stable than others yet have much more at stake economically in these perilous times. Some have the security of a pension but are more at risk healthwise. Some of us have relatives living abroad and may be worried, while others may have elderly parents whom they cannot visit So we are all pretty much in this together. Especially in times like these, it would be very unwise for us to compare ourselves to others. We simply need to do our bit and count our blessings.”

He points out that we all depend on other people to get through this difficult time. “But soon enough we may be looking back and perhaps we’ll have difficulty remembering the detail of this bleak reality, because we shall have won the war against the darn virus and moved on.”

But this is not the first threat to humanity’s survival, and it won’t be the last. “Dire situations tend to bring changes and progress too. Action and reaction often go hand in hand. World War II brought a huge leap in air travel, a dramatic development in other means of transport and advances in communication. Previous epidemics forced nations to improve health services and caused advances in medicine. There is always an upside, even in this crisis … whether or not we are able to see it yet. For one thing, petty differences seem to fade in the background and, so much that we believed was important before the crisis has been overshadowed.”

What qualities do we need to get through this bleak episode as quickly as possible? “The first is discipline. Without discipline there will be chaos. With discipline there will be progress. The second is patience. I remember having an MRI scan a few years ago. I am rather claustrophobic so my tendency would be to panic but knowing that it would be over soon and because I was kept occupied (by the earphone music provided to me) it seemed like a short dream that was over before I knew it.” The third requisite is to have a plan. He explains: “Your emotional wellbeing depends on making the most of your time at home. Prepare lists of activities you need to get done. This could be the time you’ve always dreamed of to (finally) sort out those drawers, or mend stuff, or spend time enjoying your pastimes. Be prepared. Make contact with friends without getting together physically. Share ideas and resources with others.” He emphasises that we need support for one another. “Let us find ways to stay connected, to reach out – especially to those who find it hard to be indoors for too long or who suffer from depression, and not assume they should be the ones reaching out to us if they need help. If you can think of anyone, especially of the elder generation or who suffers from unpleasant emotional conditions, use the phone or any online means to make contact regularly.”

He emphasises that we also have to be aware of what he calls ecology, meaning that we are in the same boat. “Actually, we are much like the crew of a submarine, where anything you do affects the rest of us, and vice versa. Let us exercise respect and selflessness, as opposed to panic buying, breaking quarantine, scaremongering or anything that affects society negatively. A truly civilized society should not require laws to keep its members in check, but alas we are not all civilized enough in our behaviour.” He cautions us about using words because without realizing we may be affecting others negatively instead of spreading calm and hope. “Avoid words that are loaded with drama. Catastrophizing, exaggerating and over-thinking are ways of creating anxiety. Without letting our guard down, let us share kind words and respectful humour. Let us consider how we speak to ourselves and to others.”

What lessons can we learn from this? “There is so much more that we ‘cannot’ control than there is that we can. What we ‘can’ control involves what relates to us, especially our words, our thoughts, our actions and our reactions. Assume responsibility for your actions and for your wellbeing. Avoid blaming others unnecessarily. Accept that the situation is the way it is and we need to make the most of it while it lasts. .As the old song goes, “I can’t stop the rain by complaining.” But I can avoid getting wet (feeling depressed or bored) by taking steps to remain dry (to do what I can to avoid hardship for myself and others).”

How can this awful situation possibly affect us in a positive way? Is there a proverbial ‘silver lining’ here? Steve is ever the optimist. “More than one, actually. Recapping some of the points made earlier, we have the following: Because of the fear of dying this situation has spiked religiousness in a lot of people, although this may have been spurred by the wrong motives in some because to turn to one’s God only when one is afraid points to a devotion of convenience. In my books “Gratitude is the only form of prayer,” so I prefer being grateful for all that is working in my life, rather than praying for protection, prompted by fear of a present threat. On the plus side, this made many people reflect and not take their life for granted.”

He points out that we have seen an increase in solidarity and even witnessed support being offered to complete strangers. “We experienced extraordinary human kindness in sharp contrast with the selfishness demonstrated by those whose actions jeopardized the stability of the nation.”

Another silver lining? “There is the fear of running out of rations. While fear may be irrational and ill-founded, in recent weeks we found ourselves curbing waste. A need to reduce and control our consumption makes us more human than machine. Such a situation also makes us realise what truly matters in life. Many people may have needed this jolt in order to realize that needs and wants are not the same thing and that you cannot eat possessions.”

Those of us who weren’t aware that security is a myth soon realised it. “Seeing how such a misfortune – that was out of our control to begin with – could reach us in a flash from the other side of the globe and how it forced us to close shops, cancel events and stay at home – risking our livelihood in some cases – may bring us to our senses before we pass judgement on socially emarginated people. Losing one’s job is enough to render a person homeless from being unable to pay rent. Let us refrain from labelling homeless people as addicts or lazy. Our own security is a fragile as the leaves on a tree. On a personal note, my life and career were going splendidly a few years ago, or so it seemed on the surface but in a flash – in just one moment – my whole world crumbled. It felt like my success story was cut short and coupled with a horror movie so there I was, in total disbelief, having to start over in my mid-fifties. My safety (“luck” if you will) lay in the fact that I did not have to pay rent and we had a second income, but I learned at that moment that security is a myth.”

Another silver lining is the practice and importance of washing our hands as a vital necessity. “Let us hope this practice stays with us for a couple of generations.” Then the need to cover our mouths. Steve comes up with some interesting facts: “The University of Bristol’s 2019 research indicates that “the airborne transmission of diseases, including the common cold, influenza and tuberculosis, is something that affects everyone with an average sneeze or cough sending around 100,000 contagious germs into the air at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.” We should all be very aware of this, rather than casual about public hygiene.”

He reminds us that this is a unique occasion to have time to ourselves. “Rather than struggling with it why not actively think of ways to interact with friends remotely and look up online or other resources related to their interests. If you are working from home, don’t become sloppy. Keep yourself in top form.

This is an opportune time to interact with your family, discuss topics of mutual interests, watch movies together, or do other activities… together. We must not forget that we are in this together.”

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