“First as tragedy, then as farce.”

I’ve joked before that if I hear about another “once in a lifetime crisis” in my lifetime that I may well lose my mind. Well, I was speaking with a friend the other day, and it dawned on me just how widespread this sentiment was among my generation, and even the generations prior.

Just to focus on my lifetime—the past 25 years—I can think of several major, world-shaping events off the top of my head: 9/11, the 2008 recession, the euro crisis, Crimea, Brexit, Trump 1, COVID, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, and Trump 2. Of the crises I’ve named, that just over one just over every two years…. And you know, it’s exhausting keeping up with the news. I haven’t even named many of the crises that hit closer to home, like climate change, increased wealth inequality, decreased quality of life, mass migration, increased homelessness, increased xenophobia, AI, and even the normalization of far-right populist politics. For years, I listened as the phrase “new normal” became common parlance as I watched news cycles report the world going to shit all around us.

And yet, what does this “new normal” look like? The same systems and economic configurations as always, if not slightly worse. We appear to have doubled-down on the same nonsense that precipitated many of these crises in the first place: capitalism, nationalism, austerity, etc. As if to affirm this cruel ignorance that society hasn’t changed, we’ve heard the introduction of new terms like “vibesession” to explain why, though things might seem worse, it’s actually all in our heads. So we can “keep calm and carry on,” as the old British war propoganda would tell us to do. To that I say, what a load of tripe!

I begin with this quote, borrowed from Zizek who in turn borrowed it from Marx, because I have to wonder if the preachers of Fukuyama’s “end of history”, referring to the liberal democratic world order, truly believe what they say anymore. How could you, after the economic crises that we’ve seen these past two decades? 2008 alone should be enough of a clue that this whole setup is built upon profit, exploitation of the vulnerable, and “vibes”, which is hardly “liberal” (insofar as the word has emancipatory connotations) and “democratic” (in the sense of populism). The emperor has no clothes, and it’s all to inconvenient to notice that there’s a load of bollocks in the room. Why?

It could be that it’s simply inconvenient for us to do so. What would the consequences be? Many of us would worry about our own livelihoods or that of our family and friends. We might not know what comes next, what principles ought to take root, what is to be done. Because when the emperor has no clothes, you have two choices: try to cover it up, or risk insulting him by pointing it out and being executed.

It is a sad thing to witness a crisis, but it is even sadder to mark it by doing nothing. That’s not simply amoral—when you think about it, it’s also absurd! What’s worse—dare I say, immoral and irresponsible—is to frame revolutionary as reform and justice as abstract thought, and allow the same rot to grow in the shadow far from view. The reelecttion of Trump is proof enough of that: the ancien régime has felt the cut of the guillotine. But does it know that it’s lost its head?

All of which is to say, history is back, and it’s swinging its fists.