A politikai filozófia a világjárványról
Authors: Hörcher Ferenc 
Published: December 2021

Összefoglaló. Ez a filozófiai esszé arra tesz kísérletet, hogy
megpróbálja nyomon követni a világjárvány kibontakozását, a változatos védelmi
stratégiákat, valamint a mégiscsak bekövetkező tragédiákat a politikai filozófia
perspektívájából. Mégpedig valós időben. Az esszé abból a hipotézisből indul ki,
hogy az emberiséget váratlanul érte ugyan a járvány, mégis igen gyorsan tudott
reagálni (lásd az oltóanyag előállításának gyorsaságát), az egyes emberek
azonban nem tudtak kilépni saját természetük korlátai közül. Ennek megfelelően a
hatalom ismét elkövette a szokásos hibákat, a lázadók lázadtak, és a politika
továbbra is a konfliktusok kezelésének művészete maradt. A politikával
foglalkozóknak azonban kincsesbánya ez a korszak a politika természetének
elemzéséhez.

Summary. This paper, written in the genre of the literary essay,
tries to keep track of the birth and development of the pandemic, the various
defence strategies and the tragedies that took place anyhow, from the
perspective of the discipline of political philosophy.

Now political philosophy is not characteristically ready to react promptly to the
events of the day. It has got a long term perspective, and therefore has no
intention to keep an eye on the headlines of the online news portals. It has got
long term debits, which cannot be easily paid back in cash.

And yet the claim of the paper is that in fact we are confronted by a state of
affairs when political philosophy is obliged to take note of contemporary
events. And it has to try to respond to those events almost “real time” or
directly. We are aware of 4 million dead, by now, which is an unacceptable
number.

To tackle states of emergency parliaments are usually ready to offer exceptional
measures for government action, even in parliamentary democracies. Yet
politicians do not necessarily want to take on board the struggle with the virus
– they can easily drop it out from the issues of the day –, claiming that public
health should not be politicized. Yet by leaving the stage to let professional
experts make the decisions, they give up their chance to unite the camp.
Statesmen can only unite their camp behind them, if they make use of the window
of opportunity opened by an emergency situation, and if they are able to make
use of the phobias and anxieties of everyday people, in the fashionable
populist, plebeian manner.

The essay analyses two basic relationships influenced by the pandemic. One is
claimed to be the intergovernmental, or global scene. Here, the great and
developing powers are competing with each other, through the still mostly
acceptable international norms of taking advantage of inequality. The other is
the inner political scene, where there is a growing distrust between the
authorities and the ordinary people, fuelled by restrictions, fake news, and
forms either of controlling society by illegal means, or of influencing leaders
by indirect means.

The last part of the essay presents three major aspects from where one can
analyse the happenings: a social, a communicational and an economic perspective
on its effects.

The essay finishes with some cautionary, sceptical notes on human nature, in
order to keep vigilance in emergency situations on the loss of balance, either
internal or external, to avoid the major dangers.