Things have been speeding up. An accurate claim since the Cambrian explosion, to be sure, but particularly striking in the last few days.
With the invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing disorganisation of global politics shifted up another notch. This, like COVID, was almost certainly not a temporary interruption to an otherwise quiet life, but another moment of escalation in a secular crisis that stretches back to the 1970s (or, according to preference: industrialisation, the 16th century, or the agricultural revolution).
This is the time of neither an old world nor a new, but a permanent chaotic interregnum, in which as Gramsci once noted, all sorts of morbid symptoms will appear. This newsletter is about those symptoms.
The content will encompass collapsology, existential risk research, political theory, the politics and culture of collapse, information on practical movements for collective survival, climate systems breakdown, and the affirmation of an experimental attitude towards living and dying.
If society is collapsing, what is to be done?
As has already been intimated, I am going to take a rather long view of these topics. There will be book reviews, interviews, think pieces, news commentary, reading note compilations, theory, screed, polemic, argument, data.
All commentary and criticism are welcome. Join me: