Paris Demetriades
If we consider the 2008 financial crash as the starting point of a grim era, one where the term "crisis" became a permanent fixture in the daily news and has since never really left, not even for five years at a stretch. It’s easy to conclude that we are now nearing two full decades of what’s come to be known as polycrisis: the sickening phenomenon of multiple, overlapping crises unfolding simultaneously.
Economic crisis, social crisis, political crisis, institutional, climate, public health, and for the past three years, as if all the above weren’t enough, a full-blown, multi-front war crisis. In short, every year feels worse than the last.
Undeniably, since last Friday, when the all-out clash between Israel and Iran began, this cursed polycrisis has reached even more alarming levels. In an interview with LiFO and Tina Mandilara, the highly decorated Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez voiced his belief that humanity is facing its greatest crisis since World War II. We are witnessing, he said, the end of humanism; a time when human life is being systematically devalued, and unchecked populism and nihilism have taken hold.
In this context, no matter how important it is to stay informed and aware, how can we not understand the hesitation of so many to keep a distance from current events? How much toxic and dystopian information can a human mind process in a single day? How much negativity? And when you factor in the crisis of journalism itself, and the chaos of misinformation flooding through social media, the situation becomes nearly unbearable, often without us even realizing how, what, or why.
Is retreating into our own little world, provided it’s still untouched,the answer? Not necessarily, at least from the standpoint of active citizenship. But our mental health must also be a priority. As is starting to be discussed more openly and without stigma, the notion that “no one is okay” and that depression and other mental illnesses have become as common as the common cold is anything BUT unrelated to everything mentioned above.
Maybe, if there’s one thing (emphasis on "maybe") that is within our control, it’s acknowledging that it’s perfectly reasonable to not feel okay given all that’s going on. Perhaps what’s truly irrational is to carry on as if absolutely nothing is happening. The inhuman pace at which everything is changing around us, especially when it comes to technological overdevelopment, is yet another destabilizing factor.
In the end, each of us must find our own ways to stay afloat. But one thing is clear: composure and clarity are no longer luxuries, they are necessities. On every level.
