The Coronavirus Pandemic, Hideo Kojima and the End of the World
Before the pandemic started I was already washing my hands constantly out of irrational paranoia, and some years ago I was isolated in my house with highly reduced social contact with the outside world during a long depression, so it’s somewhat unnerving to look at the state of the world and see similarities with my own personal problems, as if the world itself is morphing in a magical fashion to reflect my own paranoia and depressive episodes.
Obviously there is no need to delve into such paranoid insanity, especially considering that millions of people experience these same problems. Even more so considering that there is a recent apocalyptic video game that deals with a collapse that’s eerily similar to the current pandemic and lockdown: Death Stranding explores a world in the middle of a slow apocalypse in which most people live isolated from each other, stuck in big cities and almost never getting out of their houses; in this world people mostly communicate through holograms, and human contact is highly reduced, even though people are far more connected than ever.
It’s safe to assume there is something deeper going on, which is that my own conduct with regards of paranoid hand washing is subconsciously reflecting something that already exists in the outside world, and that an artist like Hideo Kojima is consciously expressing it through his work. This is also not the first time he has explored those themes either, in Metal Gear Solid 4 there was a character called Sunny, the daughter of the two protagonists, who lives isolated from the rest of the world and is connected with other people only through the internet.
This is the reality of the current pandemic since we live in a society in which people are extremely connected and disconnected from each other at the same time. The whole world is enveloped in a massive web of connections, both virtual and material, that make us fairly vulnerable to massive destructive outbreaks that spread in a viral fashion, and yet this tangled web of connections is also fundamental to the functioning of global civilization and the preservation of billions of human lives.
So it’s not even a matter of predicting the future but rather of describing a contemporary series of realities that are becoming more and more present as time passes and the old structures enter into conflict and collapse due to its own internal contradictions. There is a new world that’s being materialized while the old one is rapidly dying, and anyone that’s paying close attention would see what’s going on and want to take action, either in terms of creative production, political activism or shitposting on social media.
The world we live in is also kinda similar to the one described in classic cyberpunk, although different in some subtle ways such as the fact that government still plays a central role in terms of power and control, while corporations degenerate into cults of personality around pseudo-competent CEOs. This is why cyberpunk became inane and outdated, not just because our world is now too similar to the works of William Gibson or Masamune Shirow, but rather because we are already past the Rubicon as we are entering into a different, more bizarre world that’s more reminiscent of Death Stranding and… maybe… Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online is a mediocre anime show that has somehow managed to become extremely popular for a very long time, and I think that’s mainly because of the core premise of the show which is that there is no fundamental difference between the real or virtual world, at least outside of the level of detail. This is very much the case for many young people who see online worlds as a fundamental part of their lives.
In the other hand the old world is violently refusing to just go away and die, and I think this is what’s behind the extremely slow and incompetent response towards the pandemic coming from many governments that operate under old paradigms and ideologies, in which the mere idea of a region-wide quarantine seems like a sin against capitalism. After all the hand of God is only meant to punish the poor for their own wickedness.
The madness of the delayed response has affected people and governments all over the world regardless of whether they are democratic or authoritarian, liberal or conservative, secular or religious, rich or poor. It’s a type of insanity that seems to exist everywhere and yet it seems to be mostly determined by this refusal to move forward and change in a decisive manner to address the crisis at hand.
The coronavirus pandemic has shown that there is no turning back, even though there are still many social movements that encapsulate the insanity of pretending that everything is normal and that the world is just and orderly. Ancient religions are one of the most obvious culprits, but political movements like Trump’s MAGA cult and Biden’s ‘Return to Normalcy’ delusion are perfect examples of regressive and degenerate movements that are desperately trying to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the old world isn’t ending, both metaphorically and literally.
The new zeitgeist has yet to be fully determined even though collective human consciousness is always moving forward. But regardless of what happens, the material reality of interstate roads, ocean shipping, and the internet is not likely going to change, it’s possible that travel might be more regulated than before the pandemic, but the connections are so deep and powerful that they are not going to go away anytime soon.
Now we are seeing many political and corporate leaders across the world wanting to reopen the economy and just “return to normal”, even though in many countries the number of daily infections hasn’t slowed down enough. For many people the stability of the economy and the public bureaucracy are more important than the health of society and its people. This is clearly not sustainable, preserving life and strengthening human connections is fundamental to the functioning of our collective civilization.
The truth of this world is that we are all part of a massive interconnected network. Every time you wash your hands you are helping other people, even if you cannot see or touch them.
