COVID-19 AND HOMOGENIC HOME

Sıtar KESER

Human’s quest for meaning is at the center of human existence. This quest is the existential crisis that all humanity carries with them constantly in one way or another. Beyond material needs, “meaning” offers purpose and hope to our lives. The source of the meaning of our existence is its traditional cultural, social and historical ties that determine its context. The concept of globalization that disrupts these social ties reveals /promotes an atomized individualism with its strong influence. The global order that constantly reproduces itself promotes a shallow and endless desire for more “things.” It offers a culture that erodes social solidarity by enhancing indifference among individuals with technocratic rationality that speaks only of efficiency and productivity (Shapiro, 2020). The interactions established through networks, which have become a means of controlling the whole life, also minimize the evaluation/valuation processes and push/neutralize the human as a cultural, psychological and social entity.
In his book, which explains globalization using the solid, liquid and gas metaphor, Bauman(2006) defines the age we are in as an “age of fluid modernity” where goods, people, ideas, information flow everywhere and in countless ways.

The globally occurring COVID-19 outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to be manifested in a post-modern context with a dystopic view of Bauman’s (2006) fluid modernity definition. Considering the COVID19 outbreak, it appears that the rate and form of spread represent globalization. This pandemic, which is ubiquitous at any moment, becomes the mirror image of globalization itself. It is observed that scenarios, where the COVID-19 outbreak and possible future outbreaks will continue to spread with the accelerating and facilitating effect of globalization, are frequently mentioned (Mas-Coma, Jones & Marty, 2020). It seems necessary for all humanity to realize a perspective that will inevitably reveal all possibilities for such situations with all possible consequences of the changing world. At this point, the role played by technology, which continues to be in our lives in many areas from education to health, cannot be denied in determining the route we enter.

“To what extent will technology spread into the lives of individuals and societies?” “Who will determine the limits of technology, how, and according to what? “How will the continuation of the exceptional state that invited us home with the” stay home “motto in 2020? In times of crisis where history is suspended, many thinkers and researchers present different perspectives in addressing these and similar questions. Finally; The simplest fears of individuals and societies and their hopes for the future are revealed in these crisis periods, where answers are sought through two main lines: “optimistic perspectives” and “pessimistic perspectives” (Baker, 2020).
The conditions that seem to be discontinuous, but the potential to produce continuity, in which history is suspended, seem to be a manifestation of the form of bio-political power conceptualized by Foucault (1993). This form of power is a form of power based on “body”
that organizes social life from within, reproduces life, and is based on the continuity of life.
Akay (2020), who interprets today through the bio-political argument, explains the relationship of the individual with himself and others with his conceptualization of “feeling our own concern”. To be concerned about ourselves is that the individual is in a process of questioning about how she perceives, how she behaves, what she says in her interaction with herself and her environment. To be concerned about ourselves is that the individual is in a process of questioning about how s/he perceives, how s/he behaves, what s/he says in her/his interaction with herself/himself and her/his environment.
The periods in which we are concerned are the periods of crisis. The point of crisis, in which crisis periods differ from other periods, is when our anxiety intensifies and turns into a social hysteria, as Klein (2010) puts it, “collective body politics” including individual bodies are shocking. The decisive aspect of these collective shock moments is that societies are excluded from all discussions. The voice of the society is not heard about where, how, what should the transformations of individuals, societies, systems look like.
It can be said that one of the only areas where the clues of the entered route can be observed is the “home”. The home turns into a place where the society is kept outside while being kept inside. The home, which is a partnership area, as defined by Bourdieu (2010); It is the highest value that each family member should put under their command and interests and the whole system is organized according to the home. The ultimate is to ensure the continuity of the home.
For this reason, “home”, which functions as a social mirror, is one of the essential elements of transformation. As Arendt (2018) puts it, the boundary line between the private and public space becomes blurred as the “home” transforms from a private state into a “place” where the exterior turns its spots onto it. At the same time, the meaning of the home for the residents of that home goes beyond known meanings and gains new meanings. In other words, the life of one’s own life is also transformed with an opening towards the common area.
With the start of the pandemic, the transformation of the home began to evolve into a new state.
Our homes have become one of our high-speed digital ports, moving away from being our private spaces. Home; It tends to turn into branches of schools, shopping malls, hospitals and banks, and becomes places where “surveillance” is maintained. Acting as a distribution centre, the home turns into a “place” where all needs are met without the need for outside. With unprecedented collaborations between governments and technology giants, we are experiencing a present time in which our data are minimized and monitored (Klein, 2020).
A sustainable way of living without leaving the home reminds us of freezing the bodies called cryopreservation. The heart is first stopped during the cryopreservation process. By providing cells to survive, the brain tissues of people are preserved by the method of freezing called vitrification (Nuwer, 2020). As a metaphor, stopping the heart first represents the form of life established inside the home. In the life established inside the home, the only activities that are made to keep the cells that correspond to the “self-concern” live. All needs are met within the home. Education is taken inside the home. Health services are provided at home. Whatever you want to consume is brought to your feet without getting up on the spot. In a rationalized life,
the goal is just to stay alive. The only exception to life is deprived of the heart. The human search for being human needs the heart. The heart seeks the social, the interaction, the “other”. The heart makes it possible to construct the mode of existence represented by the ethos shaped by the context. In the midst of a disaster, people are able to feel a future that is “aware” of what they want and need, exempt from the state of shock/freezing.
Used to describe today’s post-modern era; the solid-liquid-gas metaphor seems to be transformed. The vitality feature flows from human to network. A new state, in which the human is frozen, takes up a spot between the networks. We are in a new situation that expresses evolving from the person who writes the letter, presses the radio button, adjusts the frequency,
just waiting at home and waiting for what the network offers. The era we are in is an era in which people freeze, and networks constantly knit everywhere without leaving any gaps. We are in an age of shock where faces turn into screens, where individuals are dots. The isomorphic appearance surpasses the external institutions and infiltrates into the homes, revealing the “homogeneous home”.
The way to overcome the state of freezing and becoming a point is through contact with the other / yourself. The development of the Ethos in context can be made possible by interacting in the neighbourhood on horizontal ground. In other words, it is very easy to turn into an object of ethos, which is determined from above, fed by self-concern, and has no heart. As soon as the connection is interrupted, he dies in the “household” with his contents. As soon as the connection is interrupted, both the “home” and its inhabitants die.