International Journal on Criminology
to finally change . At least , a little . Then we unlearned the basic principles . Very quickly we thought we were invincible and dreamed of immortality . We imagined a “ transhuman ” whose microchip had just fried for lack of available oxygen .
Fascinated by the conquest of space , we forgot the power , resilience , and resistance of microbes — those microorganisms invisible to the naked eye , vibrios , bacteria , parasites , and viruses that are considered to be the first forms of life that appeared on Earth more than three billion years ago , that survive by invading a host cell that they then cannibalize , that have far preceded the human species and pose a recurrent threat to it in the form of epidemics and pandemics .
The scholarly community has not escaped this syndrome . It has been divided both internationally and nationally , although partial consensus has emerged as the epidemic has developed . Like many of us , scientists have found themselves judging that “ incredible ” and “ unthinkable ” rhyme with “ impossible .” The West had already made a similar mistake by brushing aside , before the 2001 attacks , the nuisance capacity of al-Qaida and others .
This crisis thus has an anthropological part to it , as it makes us brutally rediscover the vulnerability of our condition . This crisis is also economic , because it consists simultaneously of a crisis of supply and a crisis of demand within a system that is more globalized than ever before , and it clearly poses a risk of a long and dangerous recession on many levels . Finally , this crisis is political , because it affects all institutions and powers , whether local or central , governmental or continental , state or international , indiscriminately .
We must , unfortunately , add to the above in the case of many countries , particularly France :
• a crisis in health organization that reveals a fundamental error of considering public health as a cost and not as an investment ;
• an industrial crisis that , although long-standing , is immediately worsening and whose shock wave will be felt for a long time ;
• a structural crisis affecting the service sector , which is resisting as best it can as the pandemic “ domestic front ” that is disrupting every distribution circuit and supply chain , is revealed ;
• an administrative crisis that amplifies the endless errors of the state bodies , which produce the best and are capable of the worst ( for example , the Regional Health Agency of the Grand Est deems it normal to propose massive job cuts for care workers at the height of the epidemic !);
• a military crisis that , as in 1918 , but in limited theatres and often in the context of external operations , exposes the troops involved to an invisible and uncontrollable danger ;
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