As the world keeps turning, I am constantly bombarded by events and circumstances I don’t fully understand. In response, I find myself searching for new words and phrases to describe what seems a new reality every day. If I can name what puzzles me, I feel I’m at least starting down the road to understanding it.
Two years ago, I jokingly celebrated adding three new words and meanings to my worldview in response to government and politics: fraught, unconscionable, and originalist. All continue to be useful, as in the following sentence: Some of the Supreme Court’s unconscionable decisions, based on an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, leave our country divided and fraught with conflict. (OK, maybe not so useful in a single sentence.)
I recently stumbled on another useful word in a New York Times column by two international scholars. They try to make sense of the multiple, deadly serious problems facing us with a newly popular term: “polycrisis.” Beyond indicating that we face more than one crisis, the term implies that they form “a complex knot of seemingly distinct but actually deeply entangled crises.” Yikes! On top of that, because they are happening at the same time, they are “causing worldwide damage much greater than the sum of their individual harms.” For example, floods, famines, and wars make political crises worse by creating millions of refugees.
Welcome to the holiday season of 2022, a time to focus on giving to others and enjoying the bounty of our material and spiritual wealth. Maybe lumping all our crises into a single, really big one will feel more manageable than the writers’ daunting list of ever-slippery global dilemmas: severe weather events related to climate change; global pandemics; economic inequality; multiple countries facing economic, political, and humanitarian emergencies; ideological, racial, and religious extremism; and cyber warfare. They suggest these problems are becoming more serious (amplified) and more common (accelerated), and warrant a “worldwide scientific collaboration” under the United Nations that would study connections among the problems and ways to address them.
It is a wonderful pipe dream, but in a world that can’t prevent one country from invading another or governments from committing the worst human rights abuses, I am skeptical. During December, when assessing the past year and predicting the next is popular, the best I can do is compare American society today with moments from the past. As people with long life experience (read: old) are wont to do, I try to compare what is with what was.
In America’s ancient history, about 50 years ago, our country was also divided and fraught with conflict. Fault lines ran deep, dividing families, generations, racial groups, and economic classes. Like today, some families prohibited political discussions at holidays, hoping to prevent arguments that might ruin current and future celebrations. Government troops killed multiple, unarmed protesters, and police shootings went unnoticed by the wider society.
Somehow, our society survived those challenges, even flourishing in many ways, although many of the problems remained. Today, I see two areas that distinguish this polycrisis from previous ones. First, is the intensity of the climate crisis. In the 1970-80s, America and the world fought off acid rain, but many saw the indelible writing on our walls: without global action, our environment would become increasingly degraded, a prediction that has proven cataclysmically true. A recent New Yorker cover titled “The future is here” shows omnivorous waves advancing on New York’s skyline.
The other is the American impulse to kill unknown people imagined to be racial or cultural enemies. Research shows an assault weapons ban would reduce the nearly 700 mass shootings that occur each year. But there is something deeper in our psyche, some hatred that has grown more virulent over the years. My mind can’t quite grasp the idea that citizens of the same country are intent on killing and terrorizing other citizens, although multiple genocides should forcefully imprint it there. It is a madness that has been widely accepted, even promoted by some, over the years.
After describing the “polycrisis” in today’s world, the column writers point out the first rule of ecology: everything is connected to everything else. Given the limitations of my mind and imagination, I rely on voting and supporting progressive institutions, but more directly on the simplest tasks and connections: a kind gesture here, a donation there, forgiveness for a foe, welcome to a newcomer. We can open our arms for those who will join in shifting the world through the humblest of words and deeds.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.