War, Heroes and Sacrifice: Masking Neoliberal Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The precarity and violation that has resulted from decades of neoliberal reforms have been made clear in the global COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in terms of access to healthcare and financial inequality. However, ideological discourses of individual heroics have been rapidly deployed, to patch up the damage done to neoliberal rhetoric. In this paper, we argue a critical sociological lens reveals something important about this violence of neoliberalism at this moment during the crisis. Analysing media articles that have considerable reach, availability and shareability, we interrogate the rhetorical framing of frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and uncover three significant themes: ‘celebrating “our” heroes’, ‘personal sacrifice’ and ‘the heroes of war’. We argue that the emerging field of the sociology of violence provides the means to expose the violence of neoliberalism in the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as identify the discursive apparatus that obscure the violation of neoliberalism more generally.

Discourse and Social Cohesion in and After the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…While this rift existed before Covid-19, the pandemic disruption put it on clear display. A range of studies recognises that class conflict is at the heart of the social tension caused by the pandemic (Goudeau et al, 2021;Horton, 2020;Khazan, 2020;Lohmeyer & Taylor, 2021) and that this conflict may well increase long term dismay at supposed elites (Russell & Patterson, 2022). The dividing line seems to run between people (usually middle class) whose social situation allows them to stay at home and easily adapt to lockdown life and who want to save everyone from Covid-19 by any means necessary, and those who fear the long-term consequences of digital surveillance and states of emergency (Lehmann, 2022;Simandan et al, in press) and/or whose social situation makes it hard for them to quarantine themselves or even seek medical care (Gordon, 2020;Horton, 2020;Khazan, 2020).…”

The “Corona Warriors”? Community health workers in the governance of India's COVID-19 response

“…In particular, the war framing conjures up a battle of good versus evil, and often serves a unifying function that motivates action and sacrifice in the quest for victory against a sometimes ill-defined ‘enemy’ ( Flusberg et al, 2018 ). Scholars also have suggested that COVID-19 war metaphors may imply the pandemic will end with a simple ‘victory’ and create an atmosphere where health care workers are cast as soldiers who must comply with orders from above ( Bates, 2020 ; Horton, 2020 ; Lohmeyer & Taylor, 2020 , Rohela et al, 2020 ). Within this there is also a necessary implication of the potential for collateral damage and for loss of life on the ‘frontlines’ ( Rohela et al, 2020 ), that may legitimate the death of some to preserve the life of others ( Lohmeyer & Taylor, 2020 ; Wagener, 2020 ).…”

Animals in Disaster Social Work: An Intersectional Green Perspective Inclusive of Species

“…Green social work recognises that power relations, including those that are unjust, pulsate through all fields and modes of social work practice, including disaster work ( Dominelli, 2012 , 2013 ; Alston, 2013 ). Disasters usually magnify inequality and oppression, as has been seen through COVID-19 ( Chomsky and Robert, 2020 ; Lohmeyer and Taylor, 2020 ). Oppressed groups are most prone to: not having decent and safe housing; being subjected to domestic violence; having no or little income support; high health needs but problematic access to medical services and those most likely to be ignored or left behind when recovery resources are distributed.…”