ABSTRACT
An Indian friend of the author tells him that back home they talk about the ‘communovirus’. Of course, there is no shortage of comments on the enhanced authoritarian power that the Chinese state is currently enjoying. In fact, it is just as if the virus appeared at the right time to shore up official communism. Today, and in every way, the authors are reminded of togetherness, interdependence and solidarity. Testimonies and initiatives in this sense are coming from all sides. Solidarity is called for and activated on a large scale, but the overall media landscape is dominated by the expectation of state welfare – which Emmanuel Macron took the opportunity to celebrate. In a way, this is an excellent catch-up session: it is true that the authors are not solitary animals. The characteristic of the ‘individual’, to speak as Marx did, is to be incomparable, incommensurable and unassimilable – even to themselves.
