THE ITALIAN APPROACH TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS: A STATE OF EXCEPTION RULED BY TECHNICIANS

In mid-March, Paolo Flores d'Arcais, an Italian philosopher and journalist, wrote an article titled “Philosophy and coronavirus: the ramblings of Giorgio Agamben”, where he discussed about how philosophy (which translates from ancient Greek as ‘love for wisdom’) can and should guide our understanding of – and response to – the covid-19 crisis. According to him, however, the recourse to philosophic theories should indeed be aimed at spreading knowledge and wisdom, rather than what he calls “superstitions and / or theological ruminations”, “spiritual funambulism and/or anti-scientific exorcisms” and “the basking and rooting in mediocre delusions of narcissism.” 1 In saying so, he was explicitly targeting Giorgio Agamben, who, at the beginning of the adoption of emergency measures in Italy, wrote an opinion peace named “the invention of a pandemic”, in which he basically accused the Italian government of using the covid-19 crisis as an excuse to institute a state of exception, unreasonably suspending the normal functioning of life and work conditions in the country. 2 Three months later, Agamben’s target shifted to professors accepting the “new telematic dictatorship” by having online courses, who he compared (“they are the perfect equivalent”) to the university lectures who swore allegiance to the Fascist regime in 1931. 3 Despite Agamben’s apparent underestimation of the pandemic, 4 as well as his unfair dismissal of professionals trying their hardest to make the best out of a complicated situation, it is worthy to reflect on whether and to what extent his – as well as other’s – philosophic theories could come handy to make sense of the way in which the Italian government is dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. To this aim, this paper will first examine the legal framework governing the Italian response to the pandemic, it will then discuss the model of governmentality that such framework establishes, and it will finally reflect upon some exclusionary dynamics it produces.