Have we entered a time of crisis?
Maybe before, but certainly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, the world, including Europe, has been in a constant state of crisis - and the future is uncertain. The layers of crisis are overlapping. We had a global health crisis, followed by a series of climate change-related natural disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes that were continentally relevant. Then we had two significant continental wars; the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Hamas's terrorist attack on Israeli civilians. Subsequently, there has been a series of unnatural disasters, such as accidents and incidents related to natural disasters. Infrastructural collapses related to floods, heat, and fires are examples. We can point to the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction in the transportation sector as an example with global implications.
During the same period, we have experienced a political crisis characterized by a tendency to lower democratic standards worldwide in countries such as the USA, Russia, China, and also within the European Union. Clear-cut examples in the EU include politicians who support the obviously anti-democratic Russian regime, such as Orbán in Hungary and Fico in Slovakia. Outside the EU, examples include Trump in the USA and Erdoğan in Turkey. A social crisis has been caused by a series of socio-economic phenomena such as rising inflation, high bureaucratization and corruption, and increasing societal stratification related to various kinds of support or protest. Examples would be support for Ukraine and Israel, and even for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and protests against Israel.
Last but not least, we are also facing a cultural crisis, with an increasing number of citizens in many societies believing in a series of conspiracy theories, spanning from 5% in Denmark to almost 22,5% for example in Croatia. Part of this cultural crisis is a crisis of religion, stemming from its misuse for military, political, and ideological purposes. The misuse of Orthodox Christianity by the Russian regime, is another example, as is Roman Catholicism by some political parties in the EU. In the US and the EU Islam is misused by both Muslim and non-Muslim protesters in their reaction to Israel's response to Hamas.
There are other layers to this ongoing crisis, but the ones mentioned are sufficiently clear in terms of evidence, and there are various types of overlap between layers. Thus, there is no reasonable doubt that we have entered a crisis that lasts almost six years as I write this. However, although the ongoing crisis includes layers that are not entirely new, some aspects are obviously different. First, these layers are continentally or globally relevant and are increasing in number per year and in magnitude. Second, they are mutually related, sometimes even causally. Third, they overlap and create so-called MSDs, or multiple simultaneous natural and unnatural disasters. Lastly, the layers create new global hotspots such as flood regions from Germany and Belgium to Switzerland and European Mediterranean countries.
Reactions
Two phenomena related to the layers of the crisis are becoming increasingly relevant due to human reactions. Two extreme reactions are gaining more support in societies: crisis denial and crisis panic, sometimes labelled moral panic. Both reactions can be intentional or unintentional. Crisis denial is often driven by individuals who belong to denial or conspiracy theory groups, while crisis panic is a common human response to situations where humans fear for their lives.
Both reactions are irrational internally and externally, meaning they consist of irrational beliefs, often without supporting evidence. They may lead to irrational actions, sometimes at the cost of human lives. Examples are numerous, but consider the case of an extreme flood. Denial of the flood's severity can lead to irrational actions and loss of lives, just as panicking due to shock or fear can. Consequently, people are unprepared for the crisis and its many layers. They seem unprepared mentally, rationally, and emotionally, in terms of proper actions during a crisis, and in their belief in the safety of infrastructures, which are obviously inadequate for the magnitude of various new crisis layers, especially natural disasters.
Therefore, there might be a crisis of proper, adequate, and rational actions before, during, and after a disaster. For example, there was a lack of solidarity among EU member states at the beginning of the pandemic of COVID-19. In fear and panic, most EU countries simply observed while hundreds of people were dying in Italy. Solidarity in a crisis is a matter of rational behaviour, and not just moral conviction.
Solutions
There are various solutions to the different layers of the ongoing crisis, some of which may involve theoretical knowledge and practical know-how accessible to the majority of citizens. However, for some layers, such as the need for new infrastructures that can withstand the magnitude of recent disasters, we still lack solutions. Let us imagine that solutions for such problems will be found quickly in well-organized and rational societies.
Still, one issue, perhaps of global relevance, remains unsolved and simply won’t «dissolve like sugar in water» (Ludwig Wittgenstein). It appears that people are generally very reluctant to change their way of life, their worldview, or world-picture (Lebensform, Weltbild). Many are aware that humanity might not survive without significant changes in lifestyle, yet they remain resistant to change. They are unwilling to abandon old habits, routines, and practices or to learn and adopt new ones. For example, many people who denied common measures against the pandemic simply died of COVID-19.
Why this reluctance persists is still unknown. Perhaps it is a kind of brand-new collective death wish or a kind of death cult. It might be a simple dilemma: either we continue to live as we want and as we are accustomed to, and we face our own extinction or we change our lives and we survive; there is no third possibility / tertium non datur. Perhaps it is an ELE, that is, extinction-level event, but now due to human irrationality and stupidity. Although it is a fact that «human IQ has been rising more slowly», and some studies even claim that human IQ is declining, we aren't becoming significantly smarter as we did in previous decades and centuries. Perhaps we are moving toward a kind of «idiocracy». Being a philosopher, this doesn’t surprise me since it is said by Heraclitus of Ephesus: «πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει» or «Everything changes and nothing stands still», so perhaps this is the case for our human IQ as well.
