How Disciplined and Reasonable

In Austria, the corona crisis was ended prematurely thanks to the government, the opposition, the virologists, the mathematicians and the economists – at least it would appear so.

This happened in no time at all, and it is quite uncanny how quickly the media in this country managed to turn the Corona Crisis into a quite appealing real-time computer game. The variables have been staked out, the algorithms calculated, and the scores determined. There are all kinds of graphics and curves. The only problem with the so-called shoulder closure of all parties seems to be that the opposition parties are dissatisfied because they are not involved enough in the cake of this firework of effective solutions, in this success story. Gradually Corona is becoming a spectacle. Everything is fine, we are on the right track, if we just patiently persevere with the government’s measures. What is good is defined by the benchmark Italy.

I heard this today in a stream from a National Council meeting. There was agreement across party boundaries regarding the benchmark that we have to do better than the Italians. That could also be the title of this game: Corona – Do better than Italy. And one doesn’t spare with ongoing updates that one always has better scores than Italy along the variables and algorithms one agreed on. It’s no coincidence how quickly the borders with Italy were closed. This also brought the outlines of a new national identity to the table, making Austria a premium player in the face of the Covid-19 threat.

In Austria, Corona is not a problem with the real, at least not yet.

Everything that happens is carefully embedded in the canon of known elements of known scientific symbolic orders. That here in the Corona affair a great Other might be missing does not occur for a second. The question seems to be clearly operationalized, as are the relevant answer registers. It is only a matter of how the field of medicine can be mathematically optimised and linked to the field of economics in order to have the lowest possible coefficient from the product of the number of deaths and the expected recession index.

It is also openly stated that in this country one does not want to see or read such pictures or reports as we are now constantly seeing or reading from Italy or Spain – indications of a real that is not under control – one prefers the somewhat sterile corona crisis on the drawing board of the farsighted strategists, even if one is somewhat remorseful in admitting that unfortunately one can only drive on sight.

The rhetoric in the direction of wanting to be best in class also finds its expression in the way one deals with the population. One praises the people here in this country very much, tells them how well-behaved they are in terms of social distancing, how disciplined and reasonable they are. One appeals to the new sense of national unity, to the fact that we are there for each other. The feeling that very drastic restrictions on the usual freedoms have been decided upon is hardly ever felt. Those who oppose social distancing are at first benignly described as those who do not participate, quasi spoilsports who need to be better motivated. Only when they do it too colorful, one points out that they are life endangerers and criminals in the sense of the epidemic law.

At regular intervals there are financial aid packages for different groups and a flood of thanks for all who help. In media reports we are gradually gaining a special understanding of the specific problems of various sociological groups and professions, problems of parents, teachers, women, kindergarten teachers, florists, people at supermarket checkouts, etc.

All this always with the prefix of the Chancellor: “I am fully aware… He presents himself at regular intervals as a standardised model witness and, by means of well-prepared anecdotes, he tells us how he was affected by this or that government measure. At the same time, he also provides the corresponding adequate mental model of the processing.

This hypnotic bulwark, this PR campaign against the real still holds, above all for the reason that, in view of the fact how well one is understood here in Austria by the decision-makers, little of what Freud had called Unbehagen is still being expressed.

So, it is hardly surprising that serious testimonies about the real of the matter, about how people were affected as subjects and in their own particular way by the social restrictions and by this virus itself, hardly appear in the official media.