Gods and Beasts: An Aristotelian View of the “Corona-Years”

“Yet, today, what seems most poignant about this story of just a few years ago is not so much that the young man had the opportunity to meet his friend in person as that meeting face-to-face was still considered an essential requirement by either him or his community—the consummation, if you like, of their friendship.”

Until the shroud of lockdowns fell, however unevenly, upon a fitful world in 2020, the prevailing understanding of human beings was still that they were situated in and belonged to distinct geographically-based communities. Stories of people venturing into the Internet wonderland to strike up close, lasting relationships with other individuals whom they might never meet in person were still rare enough then to be newsworthy. One such story, which made the news while I was in New York City in 2017, concerned a young black rapper from Harlem who had declared to a group of his friends that his best friend was an 81-year-old Jewish woman who lived in Florida and was his online Words with Friends partner. After hearing about this story—which of course contained various romantic elements, such as the fact that the usual barriers of race, age, and geographical location had been overcome through the shared love of playing games together—the pastor of his church had organized a fundraiser for the young man to travel to Florida and meet his elderly friend in real life. Photos of their encounter went viral on Twitter, while The New York Times and other outlets declared that their friendship was “melting hearts.” Yet, today, what seems most poignant about this story of just a few years ago is not so much that the young man had the opportunity to meet his friend in person as that meeting face-to-face was still considered an essential requirement by either him or his community—the consummation, if you like, of their friendship.

I also had a few acquaintances, at the time, who confided in me stories similar to the one above: stories of finding people on social media—such as Snapchat or Reddit—and developing intense friendships or seemingly real romantic relationships, even though there were no immediate plans to meet in person. Yet I regarded these stories as odd; moreover, the illusory and escapist quality of such connections was clear. It can be easy to get along with someone when one does not have to face the challenges involved in, for instance, evaluating each other’s physical appearances or real-world personalities, to mention just a couple of the usual complicating factors. Partial knowledge can also be more misleading than no knowledge at all; and getting to know the real person behind an Internet “avatar” has the danger of ruining the fantasy on which the connection is built. In one of the stories related to me, the person said that after dating a girl through online chatting for six months, engaging even in a face-to-face Skype call created so much panic in him that he turned off his screen and claimed to have had technical problems.

But fast-forward to 2022. Who does not have a story of a good friend, lover, business partner, or teacher whom they have never met in real life? Even beyond the fact that schooling and business have often been moved online is that people have been opened up to an array of quirky, culturally exotic experiences that were not part of their horizon of possibilities before. Here in Athens, Greece, my aunt has spoken to me with delight about taking dancing lessons, along with her young children, from street rappers in New York City during the lockdown. One of my own exotic experiences during this time has involved taking lessons in tai chi, a “slo-mo,” internal martial art, while here in Athens from a teacher based in Sydney, Australia.