The New Age of Catastrophe

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The world is entering a new Age of Catastrophe. The exceptional is becoming normal. The last such crisis, between 1914 and 1945, witnessed two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the Holocaust. Now humankind faces fresh existential threats - the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods, and other extreme weather events caused by accelerating climate change, and the danger of nuclear war in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These threats, argues Alex Callinicos, have their common source in a multidimensional crisis of the capitalist system, which is hitting the buffers, hurling us towards societal collapse. It embraces the increasing destruction of nature and the degradation of labour, a stagnant world economy since the Global Financial Crisis, and escalating inter-imperialist conflicts between the United States, China, and Russia. So far, the main political beneficiaries have been the far right, which may capture the White House again in 2024. But the new Age of Catastrophe is also an age of revolt. Following on from the Black Lives Matter and MeToo protests, multiple faultlines in the system will provoke more mass movements that challenge myriad forms of oppression and can open the way to a just and sustainable world.