The COVID-19 epidemic led to the most severe global crisis in decades and to an unprecedented social unrest. At the same time, it accelerated our world’s transition to late modern period. With economic and political institutions weakening, the most important thing is no longer economic or social progress, but moral and religious progress. Modern societies are beginning to move away from traditional forms of social mobilization to heated, explosive social performances that resemble the religious rituals of archaic societies.
The report on the social impact of COVID-19 explores examples of three countries: the USA, Poland, and Germany. In particular, I want to describe and explain different forms of social mobilization. While in the U.S. and in Poland the social performances of the Black Lives Matter movement and the National Women’s Strike took the form of „rituals of revolution” aiming at a profound transformation of the political and social system, Germany was dominated by „rituals of rebellion” carried out, among others, by the Querdenken 711 group, which did not aim at overthrowing the political and social system but rather at reforming it.
