TITLE:
COVID-19: Anxiety vs Fear and the Dangers of Future Global Problems
AUTHORS:
Esteban Nicholls
KEYWORDS:
Ontological Change, Heidegger: Pandemic, COVID-19, Normalcy, Global Problems
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.8,
August
13,
2024
ABSTRACT: My aim in this paper is to ask whether anxiety or fear would incentivise change when facing global problems. In the context of the SARS-CoV-2, I shall analyze the pandemic in the context of the ontological in structural, institutional and behavioral settings. Given that pandemics occur sparsely I have employed analytical theoretical construction, some statistical comparison and transcendental arguments in a logical nest of analytic inferences. I should note that I am not interested in what the wake of the pandemic looks like. This paper is about is to do so I appeal, in general terms on the philosophy or Martin Heidegger. Along the same lines, this time following Anthony Giddens, I argue, contrary to what many ascertain, that anxiety is a force which pushes people to want to return to normalcy; and fear to change. For example, Agamben argues that emergencies [fear] push for a return to normalcy and a state of exception is there to change in a systemic order. Again, I disagree, I posit that COVID-19 showed that fear is a more powerful engine of change. Anxiety which is stronger than fear to the contrary is that the strongest force to element to propel a return to normalcy is anxiety not fear. This paradox is what this paper’s primoradial wants to contribute. Ontological dissonance or existential threats put into question our ability to be-in the world. What I would posit is that emergencies may lead to change while anxiety leads to stagnation and useless attempts to return to a pre-pandemic world.