‘Crisinity: are there opportunities in the midst of today’s crises?’
We live in unprecedented times. Since the eve of the millennium, the lulls between news cycles have compressed, and the intensity of each crisis spikes more terrifyingly than the last. In a globalised and digital society, the previously unimaginable horrors of our times seem inescapable. How and when, can and will, this madness end? Think I’m overstating things? Need to lighten up or take off my tin-foil hat? Spent too long down rabbit-holes on YouTube, consorting with the flat-earthers and lizard-mongerers?
Well for those whose memories might not stretch back to 1999, and forward to now, or who might need convincing with a recap, here’s just a few (and please don’t take any omissions as anything other than human error):
The Millennium Bug; 9/11 and The War on Terror; wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; then the Boxing Day and Japanese tsunamis; the worldwide recession and the property crisis; endless pillaging of, famine in and brutal civil wars across Africa; the Fukushima meltdown and Icelandic volcanic eruptions; the conflicts in and terror of Middle East conflict escalations, Al Qaeda and ISIS; wahabist jihadism; global warming and environmental catastrophes; waves of refugee crises; the horrors of Putin’s Russia; Brexit and isolationism; Trump and a new breed of facism; abominable racism, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, and civil war in all but name in America; an unprecedented global pandemic; a chilling resurgence of antisemitism, always the canary in the coalmine for all of society; brutal wars in Ukraine; the tyranny of dictators and lurch back to extremism; and now Hamas’ unimaginable pogrom and the worsening tragedy in Gaza. Did I miss anything? I’m pretty sure I did. But I tried.
I’m not the first to note that this incessant and relentless bombardment — in traditional mass-media, social platforms, and online communities — leaves the vast majority of the developing world in a perpetual state of terror. Even worse, what we are witnessing impacts the most marginalised, abandoned and impoverished more than us ‘luckier ones’. It seems that society has never been so unequal, the disparity between ultra-wealthy and the impoverished grows daily. We are divided, compassion and kindness in such short supply, and as a society have lost the ability to question the narratives forced on us.
We are less educated, more misinformed, and hold entrenched and polarised opinions. Our days and nights are spent screaming into the void in digital echo chambers. And as Adam Curtis consistently points out: nothing ever changes, and all hope seems lost, perhaps forever. Most of us have become zombies drifting through our lives; despairing for the future of our children; sedated, comatose and soma-fuelled, seeking some way to escape and keep the worries of the world at bay. As our thumbs scroll and we bathe our faces in the backlit glow of our precious devices, where are the opportunities within these crises?
Awareness of the need for a mindset of Crisinity seems to me the crucial and only first step. Surely we who see through the smokescreen, who choose the red pill over blue, who long for this sleepwalk back through history into a re-booted version of the worst of the 20th Century to be over… surely we who feel an obligation to unite, come together, hold our leaders to account can find a way? Surely the revolutionary spirit of the past, that we have seen repeatedly crushed, while the empty promises of a better world wither and die, over and again, in the midst of this onslaught… surely we must have some hope?
If you’re looking to me for answers, I’m sorry to say, and you almost certainly won’t be surprised that I don’t have them. But I’m trying to look for them. And today marks the start of that. The late, great, prescient prophet, Bill Hicks, was one of the first to open my eyes to what sadly unfolded to be true. We need more truth-seekers-and-tellers. We need more laughter and reminders that ‘It’s just a ride’. We need to find a way out of this terrifying reality we find ourselves in. Or maybe it’s just me? The Crisinity I’m facing — at a micro level, in my silly, irrelevant life (but hey, it’s the only one I’ve got, I believe) — now affords me the opportunity to write and explore. So for me, this is the start. Taking the red pill one more time. Looking for the opportunities in these crises we all surely face.
