The debate over whether post-pandemic inflation could be a transitory issue gives way to whether this could be the 1970s with the pain of Inflation stagnates and lack of energy; then whether the crypto crash can take on the taste of the 2000s housing market; what effect soaring energy prices in Europe could have on politics there and beyond; and worst of all, grain prices can cause waves of hunger around the world. On the Bloomberg financial podcast “Odd Lots,” hosts often observe a “perfect storm” of crisis conditions: in transportation logistics, coffee pricecopper production shortage, challenges at the start pump more oil, everything seems to have broken or gone bad all at once. Is this just a heightened period of unusual events, or a lull before the interlocking pieces collapse?
And this takes away the deeper anxieties that people have, which also contribute to feelings of social decay, about adolescent depression and anxiety, decline in reading and mathematics, the ubiquitous presence of fentanyl, the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-LGBTQ violence. Police take one hour When he came to intervene, a young man burst in and shot and killed the child. young man shot grocery shopper because they’re Black, patrons at gay and transgender nightclubs, college football player after a a picnic to see a play. Life just ended midway through something normal and few things make people feel like the world is ending more than that.
There’s a reason many people worry about the wider society loneliness that’s hard to define and harder to part with. There’s a reason many people describe walking in the fog. “We are now living at the end of the world,” poet Saeed Jones wrote in his latest book. collect“Shocked by the headlines and alarm clocks.”
Even in all this pain and dark possibilities, some news defied expectations. Russia has not rolled over Ukraine; The United States and Europe have organized together; Everybody celebrate In dark city From there the Russian army withdrew. Many of the biggest names in American electoral conspiracies – and especially those who want to control the levers of the election bureaucracy – have lost races in the states most important to the election. presidential transfer of power. So far, the collapse of major crypto and crypto exchanges has not spread throughout the financial system. Supreme Court speaks out incredulous This month in theory independent state legislature, though we won’t really know until next year. There was no widespread violence or unrest on Election Day or in response to results.
Perhaps humans have underestimate against artificial intelligence, as my colleague Farhad Manjoo argues; there was a breakthrough in nuclear fusion, even if building upon it can be really complicated; everyone will probably get one soon malaria vaccine that could change the way the disease spreads. Some of the most severe climate change predictions may turn out to be too severe. “The window on the probable climate future is narrowing,” said my colleague David Wallace-Wells Written This year, “and as a result, we are getting a better understanding of what is coming: a new world, full of disruptions but also with billions of people, far beyond a normal climate but fortunately, true apocalyptic climate shortage.”
He argues that in part, some of the improved outcomes stem from mobilizing to deal with deep fears. This is tied to a mysterious fluidity between ominous warnings and positive outcomes, that fear can ameliorate the reason for fear. This may be what drove the really hardcore conspiracy theorists out of office this fall – that fickle voters heard a dark perspective on what could happen and acted on it. motion. Or maybe they just want more stability; maybe many people do.
This is, in theory, why people debate the nature of our problems and how serious they are on Twitter and in places like The New York Times: feedback. Private and public scientific debate For example, the severity of a new variant of the virus has the potential to shape government and societal responses.
