American Polycrisis
Polycrisis is defined as a condition where multiple overlapping crises magnify each other and become extremely difficult to solve. The French political theorist Edgar Morin used the term to describe the intersection between economic, political, and climate crises, all of which reinforce each other. Here a just a few highlights from our current moment of polycrisis in America:
Ever widening income inequality in the US (now reaching pre-French Revolution levels)
Housing and higher education increasingly out of reach for working class people
Public services, such as K-12 schools, are being whittled down to the bare minimum and privatized to enhance shareholder profits
Near constant surveillance of the mass public that whittles down our civil liberties and freedom of expression
Religious institutions that serve as mouthpieces for political parties and a powerful corporate elite
Reckless military adventurism that continues to drain American resources and prematurely end the lives of young people who could be doing literally anything else
The growth and organization of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in America and throughout the globe
Climate disaster is upon us right now and will only worsen
When educators, political pundits, elected officials, or average citizens talk about politics, there are a few tired tropes that keep popping up. In our everyday conversations, there may be a focus on opposing party ideologies, clashing personalities of those at the top of the government, doing a close read of a national constitution, or by examining democratic institutions. However, all of these approaches are outdated and simply will not cut it anymore. We have to rethink our approach and reorient ourselves toward facing a world locked in permanent crisis.
Although there are ample reasons for doom and gloom, the very nature of polycrisis offers us hope. While crises are happening simultaneously and reinforcing each other, the systems that hold everything in place are fragile and can be resisted. Pulling a single thread causes the entire structure to reveal its deep flaws and start to unravel. Climate breakdown, militarization, mass surveillance, growing income inequality, a rising cost of living, a decreasing standard of living, and public health crises are individual threads that can be unraveled in service of the flourishing of human beings both at home in the United States and abroad.
This newsletter has two goals:
- Understanding the nature of polycrisis and the diagnosing the inability of our politics to meet the current moment
- Encouraging all of us toward taking that first step in unraveling a particular thread of polycrisis and fighting for a sustainable future