Precarity: Eclipsing the Face of the Other

This essay unites the insights of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of face with an impressionistic picture of this historical moment. The pandemic has announced the reality of ongoing ethical and justice dismissiveness toward others. This essay has a modest objective; it clarifies what many of us already sense: precarity is one of the major social attributes offering definition of this era. Levinas does not offer a solution for environments void of ethical and justice coordinates. His project is a reminder of the social background within which contemporary life dwells. This essay will utilize the work of Levinas in an examination of frontline workers supplying goods, often for the privileged, during the pandemic. As health and confidence returns to the privileged, the heroes of the pandemic become increasingly expendable. This essay examines a fundamental Levinasian theme, “How does one address the face of the Other?” Perhaps the definition of being privileged is that the face of the frontline worker remains invisible, lost in unacknowledged precarity.