Remote Jobs During COVID-2019 Pandemic: Fulfillment of Desires and “Apocalypse-lite”

This article focuses on expectations in society related to COVID-2019. It is shown that these expectations suggest a picture of future that is close either to a dystopian one or to the one with clear dystopian background. The author proves that such crisis situation and the catastrophic way out of it provokes not just the negative response in the souls of many people being an important part of at least European culture, which we are part of. Life in a pandemic is, in a sense, the satisfaction of desires arising from the new opportunities given by the situation and the expansion of the boundaries of the former freedom. It is no coincidence that the current discourse about remote employment operates in terms of contentment, happiness, and fulfillment of desires. The role of “lightapocalypse” in modern culture is considered. The author concludes that we have entered an era when such “light-apocalypses” partly replace discredited revolutions and associated hopes in public consciousness and unconsciousness. Therefore, nowadays the frequent promise of further catastrophes means a tacit recognition that a world with discredited idea of revolution is still in need for changes, and therefore is doomed to a repetition of controlled apocalypses.

Keywords: COVID-2019; utopia, dystopia; wish fulfillment; distance employment; happiness; “light-apocalypse”