Resumo

OLIVIER, Bert. Present, past and future: Expectation, risk and danger of destruction. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2024, vol.64, n.4, pp.567-585. ISSN 2224-7912.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2024/v64n4a3.

Today, risk has been multiplied and exacerbated beyond anything that even Ulrich Beck's work on "risk society" seemed to suggest when first published, although - with hindsight - one can detect traces of the excessive risks of the present, centred on the Covid-19 "pandemic", in his prognostications. This paper concentrates on the work of Beck, with a view to mining it heuristically for a better comprehension of the risks unleashed by the Covid-19 "pandemic" and everything associated with it. Beck's work is situated within the framework of a Heideggerian reflection on human temporality and particularly the future, emphasising that human beings are time-oriented creatures par excellence, and that therefore what happens in the present is inescapably understood in the light of future expectations and projections. The notion of "prejudice" is also discussed in this context, to reveal the relevance of the "hermeneutic circle" for the understanding of events during and after the Covid-19 "pandemic", and to neutralise accusations of bias in the interpretation of these events offered here in relation to Beck's work on "risk society". It is argued that, despite sharing the denominator of "technological", compared to the kinds of risk distinguished by Beck, those introduced by the "pandemic", lockdowns, Covid "vaccines", and in their wake, economic hardship - to mention only some - are of a different, more deleterious order altogether. If, in contrast with the society of wealth-distribution (through goods), the "risk society" was recognisable by the (by)production and distribution of hazards such as toxic contaminants, pollution and climate-changing emissions, today society seems to be facing something far worse, namely the production of potentially, if not actually, lethal substances and conditions. If the hazards of risk society were seen as preventable (compared to "natural" perils) - after all, they were socially produced and exacerbated (or sometimes moderated) by economic and cultural practices - one might expect that it would be the case with those faced today, too. This, it turns out, is highly improbable, largely because growing evidence suggests that most of the "ultra-risks" that have emerged of late have been produced intentionally, or by design, and that it is too late to undo most of them, although others may be prevented. Specifically, it has now been established that most of these risks, if not outright dangers, were produced intentionally, as part of a depopulation agenda, by a relatively small group of hyper-wealthy, neo-fascist, globalist billionaires. What Beck argued, namely that the potential for cataclysm was increasing, has been exacerbated beyond what could have been expected under "normal" risk-conditions. Ironically, under these conditions the uncertainties of science in the face of unpredictable risk, which were highlighted by Beck, have made way for contrary, ideological claims concerning the "certainties" of "the science" in relation to so-called Covid-19 "vaccines". Insofar as these vaunted "certainties" pertained to the supposed "safety and effectiveness" of these injections, recent evidence in the guise of scientific studies suggests that the opposite is the case, and that millions of the recipients of these "jabs" have died globally since they were administered, in this way confirming the qualitative difference between the kind of risk faced in contemporary "pandemic" society and the risks that Beck perceived in the "risk society" which succeeded the society of "wealth-production". Eight of the risks that Beck associates with this kind of society are discussed, and the differences between those risks - which are generated by science and technology, among other things - and what humanity faces today, particularly since the advent of the Covid "pandemic", are identified and clarified. Importantly, the qualitative differences between risks as understood by Beck - which emerged as side-effects of "normal" scientific, technological and industrial practices and processes - and the risks that have emerged recently, at least since 2020, are emphasised. This amounts to the recognition of not only the risks demonstrably associated with the pseudo-vaccines marketed as "vaccines" against Covid-19, but also, and especially, of the demonstrable dangers that they hold, which could potentially augur the extinction of the human species. These and other aspects of "pandemic" society - such as deliberate economic destruction and geo-engineering - are addressed through the lenses of Beck's work on risk society, raising the fraught question of the possible extinction of humanity.

Palavras-chave : Covid-19; danger; extinction; future perspective; risk; Ulrich Beck; "vaccines".

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