I saw it on television

hundreds of airplanes grounded

in airports all over the world

an awesome image

breathtaking almost

 

what a relief for the biosphere

what a tragedy for the economy

bye bye to the hectic hyperkinetic mobility society

the space of flows the smooth space

of globalization striated immobilized

the Great Acceleration came

to a halt

 

bye bye to the pillar of pillars

the logic of growth

bye bye Babylon

bye bye overconsumption

bye bye seamless technotopia

bye bye

 

This is an age of pestilence

This pandemic is sending us back

to the Fourteenth Century

or worse

 

in Belgiam they are hoarding toilet paper

in the US they hoard weapons

the first is fake news

(first is farine in Belgium

flour

flour power you know

in times of confinement

people want to bake first,

and then shit)

the second is unfortunately

true

 

what does this tell us

besides that Americans are cowboys

and Belgians (not so) stupid

about the future

question mark

 

the relapse into the state of nature

the war of all against all

the implosion of the polis

(I am writing about since

more than a decade)

question mark

 

I had a long and depressing

intense and by times humorous and warm

online aperitive with my students

a bunch of wonderful people

from all over the world

on this pandemic and after

departing from my very optimistic

postcorona manifesto

just a sketch a dream

some hasty wishfull thinking

 

I was a little bit speechless afterwards

I was impressed by their eagerness

and the intelligence of their questions

and rather severe critiques on my dream

of the instauration of a democratic

ecological world welfare state

(cosmopolitics Now!)

 

but the conversation got us deeper and deeper

it got worse with the minute whatever we tried

but it was rich and exiting

and we were from all continents

together

in this

 

(on the same boat

in this confinement

in this mess)

 

but in my speechlessness

I forgot to tell them that

I am also into collapsology

it is a non-existing almost

impossible but highly necessary

transdisciplinary theory and practice

preparing for the inevitability of

ecological  social and economic collapse

 

it may well be that

the implosion of capitalism

is our last hope

so

that is also a reason why

I was somehow struck taken a back

almost thrilled when I saw

that awesome image on television

 

hunderds of airplanes grounded

in airports all over the planet

what a tragedy for the economy

what a relief for the biosphere

what an allegorical image

for the end of an era

 

the airplane

the ultimate machine of modernity

grounded

 

 

 

(* contribution to a cycle of

Corona Incantations)