Wednesday, October 4, 2017

big world changes

I came across a book recently by prominent sociologist Ulrich Beck:

"We live in a world that is increasingly difficult to understand. It is not just changing: it is metamorphosing. Change implies that some things change but other things remain the same capitalism changes, but some aspects of capitalism remain as they always were. Metamorphosis implies a much more radical transformation in which the old certainties of modern society are falling away and something quite new is emerging. To grasp this metamorphosis of the world it is necessary to explore the new beginnings, to focus on what is emerging from the old and seek to grasp future structures and norms in the turmoil of the present."

I am shocked by the events/catastrophes/metamorphosis I am seeing that barely anyone is discussing as part of the same process:

Brexit
Catalan secession
Harvey and Irma and the disproportionate rebuilding in Texas and Puerto Rico
Wildfires in Pacific NW
Earthquakes in Mexico

These events are part of a process of metamorphosis. A transition to a civilization that looks nothing like the world of a few decades ago. One of ruin and collapse and crisis and rebirth and reconceptions and reimaginings. 

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