Going Viral

While “going viral” has taken on a new meaning by recuperating an old one, it is the virtual experience that seems to be more enduring. Not only has the pandemic sped up the shifting of human activity onto virtual platforms, but the viral dynamics of social media seem set to outlast the microbial versions. Yet in both cases, it is unclear whether it is the actual spread or the fear that is the greater danger. In this issue of Telos we consider how the experience of going viral has come to dominate our political life as well as how our reflection on this process can free us to consider the alternatives.

Introduction
David Pan

Grab Them by the Public: Trump, Twitter, and the Affective Politics of Our Fragmented Democracy
Murray Skees

In the Swarm of Byung-Chul Han
Steven Knepper and Robert Wyllie

Foucault and the Politics of Language Today
Mark G. E. Kelly

Beyond the Fears of the Pandemic: Reinventing the Nation-State?
Pierre-André Taguieff

In Triplicate: Britain after Brexit; the World after Coronavirus; Retrospect and Prospect
John Milbank

Exceptional Economy: Sovereign Exchanges in Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben
Devin Singh

Economy and Ecology: Federal Populism and the Devil in the Details of Universal Basic Income
David Pan

Notes and Commentary

Human Joy and the Subversion of Work/Play Distinctions: A Note on Adorno’s Minima Moralia 2.84
Robert Miner

Beyond the Worlds of Work and Leisure: Ernst Jünger and Josef Pieper on the Prospects of Post-Liberal Existence
Ethan Stoneman

Critical Theory of the Contemporary

The Virus from China and American Political Debate
Russell A. Berman

COVID-19: Morality, Politics, and Fear
Jay A. Gupta

The Dawn of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Administration of Fear and Fear of Administration in the United States
Timothy W. Luke

Death of Utopia
Adrian Pabst