Actually, quoting Foucault, the world is facing the sudden emergence of the problem of “naturalness” of the human species within an artificial milieu. Indeed, our naturalness has become a threat to the circulation worldwide, it being from a street to another, a town to another, a country to another, and economical. As a result, the authorities worldwide responded to the Covid-19 epidemic by using the mechanisms of bio-power.
These mechanisms aim at reorganizing and restructuring the “milieu” we live in, which has become a field of intervention where authorities are working on affecting the global population. These interventions involve the use of a combination of different technologies elaborated by Foucault: Discipline, Sovereignty, and Security.
First, on a global scale, Discipline is exercised through the closure of borders between countries, therefore minimizing the circulation worldwide and regulating the spread of the virus, making it intra-territorial. Thus, this spatial division results in the individualization of each country in the face of the global crisis. Second, Sovereignty is seen in the organization of control within countries and cities per regions and districts respectively. For instance, the rules of confinement vary from a region to another, according to circumstances proper to each defined territory. Third, Security corresponds to the application, within each territory, of spatial planning participating in the control of events and consequently the regulation of circulation. Actually, this mechanism of security takes the form of restrictions imposed upon a given society. These restrictions make up the rules of confinement, aiming at filtering the citizens by numbers. In the actual context, Security and Discipline can hardly be dissociated because each measure of security taken implies the discipline of the individuals.
As I am writing this paragraph, I am confined in Beirut, Lebanon. I believe that the measures taken by the Lebanese authorities have a positive impact on the urban condition of the country. Before the pandemic, we used to live in chaos, where the rules were barely respected. This chaos was mutual from each side: the order of the police, who weren’t applying the rules and rather, made exceptions, and the citizens, who were indifferent to the laws. What I noticed is how strong the impact of survival can be on the human species. With the pandemic, there are no more exceptions involved in the policing of the country, and most citizens are obeying to the laws by fear. Upon my arrival in the country, I was astonished by the structuring which has been taking place.
Actually, the most used technology of power in Lebanon is Security. First, circulation is controlled through a planning of the traffic of vehicles. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, only cars with odd numbers of plate are allowed to circulate. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays the authorized ones are those with even numbers. On Sundays, going outside is forbidden to everyone. Second, the repatriation program, which I witnessed, is very strict. The procedures include CPR testing in the airport, followed by an isolation of the repatriated in hotels, followed by a hospitalization of the sick, to finally a strict monitoring of the repatriated by the ministry of health which includes calls, a visit from the police at the location of confinement, and the use of a digital app. Third, the authorities imposed a curfew upon the citizens. Overall, the mechanism of security in Lebanon is based on techniques of surveillance, diagnosis, classification, and calculations.
