This article addresses the social reality plagued by the real created by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Brazilian context. We reflect on the subjective effects of this context by taking into account the social bonds that rely on the circulation of death, added to the imperious and merciless laws of the scientific discourse, combined with the capitalist and market discourse. Poor public health management based on a necropolitical logic constitutes, in an imaginary way, another enemy, which prevails as a State policy and replicates the abandonment inherent to the human condition. We conclude that this moment, propitious for the death drive to unveil itself, opens doors for changes in politics and for the emergence of the noble-mindedness that enlivens bodies in the face of dramatic situations, despite the fact that the real remains on the horizon of the malaise of civilization.
Key words:
Necropolitics; pandemic; real; helplessness