Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"The language of war is baked in to most of us, to one degree or other. Our new daily discourse runs deep with talk of field hospitals, frontlines, the battles against an invisible enemy. [...]

"As the news gets more horrifyingly real each day - and somehow, at the same time, more unmanageably unreal - I'm not sure who this register of battle and victory and defeat truly aids. We don't really require a metaphor to throw the horror of viral death into sharper relief: you have to think it's bad enough already. Plague is a standalone horseman of the apocalypse - he doesn't need to catch a ride with war.

"Perhaps it would be better for us all if we resisted talking about coronavirus in this way. Last year, new research found that the ubiquity of military metaphors in cancer discussions could do more psychological harm than good, making people fatalistic about treatment chances and encouraging the feeling that altering their own behaviours was beyond them."

-- Marina Hyde (MarinaHyde), "Politicians may turn to platitudes about heroes or battlers or victories, but they can't disguise Britain's grim current reality", The Guardian, 2020-04-07