"In the images of our culture reacting to Covid-19 — both those of desertion and those of consumption — we are offered not only fear and entertainment but new opportunities to “confer meaning.” This is, we are told, a “surreal” moment. The empty streets and shelves are “surreal.” It’s a word Americans often reach for when something destabilizes the ongoing-ness of daily life, when life seems “not itself.” This “life” almost always means “one’s role within the economy.” To be pushed into surreality in America is to suddenly notice the strangeness of one’s relationship to producing and consuming."