The “Total Continuous War” and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Neoliberal Governmentality, Disposable Bodies and Protected Lives

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we very often heard the expression “We are at war,” but the warlike tactics that appeared more visibly during the pandemic have been long before used and deployed against the most precarious bodies among us (Butler). In fact, the “danger” constituted by the narrative of fighting the pandemic served in imposing security apparatus and exceptional measures, as well as deepening the “structural reforms” that neoliberal governments consider as their sole task to carry out (Federici). Thus, the rhetorical resource of the pandemic danger gave legitimacy to the expansion of warlike strategies with the complacency of the whole population. In the present paper, drawing on an analysis of what we consider to be the main neoliberal governmental strategies in the way of dealing with the pandemic, we question the logic of a “total continuous war” (Foucault), carried out in particular through different bodies hierarchization and the designs of post-pandemic societies. This reflection has been developed in three steps: first, we question what is this war that the COVID-19 pandemic made more visible. In a second part, we observe government tactics and its relation with the rhetoric of war, which allows neoliberal governments to expose differently the human bodies (Agamben). Finally, we examine the relation between bio-necro-policies and the urgency of promoting a total continuous war that opposes disposable bodies to lives that neoliberal governments seek to protect.