COVID-19 as a Colossal Fractal Mirror Descended From the Heavens
A distorting mirror, simultaneously reflecting and warping our most arcane fragilities
COVID-19 as a Colossal Fractal Mirror Descended From the Heavens — AI Image by Author (Microsoft Designer).
At the end of July 2024, with the tragic global pandemic now behind us, we can reflect on how this experience has marked us.
In a moment of planetary upheaval, the COVID-19 pandemic descended upon us like a distorting mirror, simultaneously reflecting and warping our most arcane fragilities. It is as if the sky itself had precipitated this reflective instrument, forcing us into a painful, metaphysical introspection on the human condition.
Vulnerability
This “mise en abyme” looming over us represents an abyss of reflections that send back at times disturbing images of our vulnerability. In the distortion of the reflective surface, we see amplified our powerlessness in the face of forces that transcend our dominion.
The term “mise en abyme” evokes a narrative or visual structure in which an image or element reflects infinitely, as in a series of opposing mirrors. It is as if reality were splitting infinitely, generating a recursive gaze that penetrates ever deeper. And it is precisely this specular mechanism that the pandemic has triggered, forcing us to look into the deepest layers of our existence. The emergence of this new pathogenic agent has indeed cracked the illusion of omnipotence that characterizes modernity.
COVID-19 as a Colossal Fractal Mirror Descended From the Heavens — AI Image by Author (Microsoft Designer).
Helpless
We believed we had bent nature to our will, and that we could dominate every threat through science and technology. But some years ago, faced with this invisible virus, we found ourselves helpless, forced to confront our intrinsic finitude.
Similarly, the measures of isolation and social distancing have taken on the contours of a veritable existential dissociation. It is as if we had lost ourselves in a labyrinth of broken mirrors, reflecting ourselves infinitely in our solitude. The absence of physical contact has brought to painful evidence our fundamental relational dimension, our irreducible interdependence.
Looking into this distorting mirror, we also see our inequalities deforming, amplifying the socioeconomic fractures that run through our society. It is as if the pandemic had brought out into the open the dynamics of power and exploitation, brutally putting them back before our eyes.
Dark
Finally, the uncertainty and unpredictability of future developments reflect the crisis of our faith in rationality and control.
We’re forced to see how small our minds are. We can’t boss around the world’s big mess. The plague smashed our fake idea that we could guess what’s next. It tossed us into a dark, scary mood about life. This weird mirror from the sky throws back odd bits of who we are. These pieces of us are broken and make us feel odd. We see our human self in a new, often scary way.
It is as if the pandemic were forcing us into an intimate, painful introspection, reflecting our darkest and most vulnerable sides.
COVID-19 as a Colossal Fractal Mirror Descended From the Heavens — AI Image by Author (Microsoft Designer).
And…so?
Yet, perhaps in this abyss of reflections, we can also glimpse the possibility of a rebirth. Because in the very act of confronting our fragilities, the path opens for a deeper reflection on the meaning of our existence. Perhaps this mise en abyme dropped from the sky represents an opportunity to redefine our relationship with nature and with others, to give new meaning to our condition.
After all, isn’t this the very nature of the “mise en abyme” — a gaze that reflects infinitely, until it reaches the deepest layers of reality? Thus, in this moment of turmoil, the pandemic offers us the possibility of a similar, radical exploration of ourselves, to rediscover a sense of belonging in a world that seems to be crumbling.
“When the perfect man employs his mind, it is a mirror. It conducts nothing and anticipates nothing; it responds to (what is before it) but does not retain it. Thus he is able to deal successfully with all things, and injures none."
(Zhuangzi)
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