The Old Order Is Dying, but a New One Cannot Be Born: Exploring new social and political terrains in trying times

Abstract

Antonio Gramsci, imprisoned in pre-WWII fascist Italy, famously wrote of his time that, 'the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear'. We too are living in an age of crisis, indeed an age of crisis more globalised and ultimately perhaps even more threatening to human wellbeing than the fascisms that emerged from early 20th century capitalism, and one can hardly doubt that 'morbid symptoms' abound even if (itself perhaps an aspect of such symptoms) we might not all agree as to what is and is not 'morbid'.