Situating ourselves in time
The present time is often discussed in terms of a series of crises with cumulative effects. Accounts tend to start with the financial crisis of 2008, move to climate change, then to the COVID-19 pandemic to conclude with the recent wars from the Russian aggression against Ukraine, indeed being called an "epochal turning-point" by the German head of government, to the attack of Hamas on Israel and Israel's retaliation in the Gaza strip. Such a cumulation of critical events, as different as they may be at first sight, calls for attempts to identify the specificity of the present time. Looking at diagnoses of the present time, however, such attempts are rather striking for their absence.
Ways of diagnosing and addressing these crises are marked by a double divergence. First, those who advocate for piecemeal social engineering see themselves confronted with grand visions. The former underline the sudden emergency and call for urgent short-term measures: new banking regulation; carbon trading; vaccine development; stepping up arms production and diplomatic travel. The latter insist that such measures fail to recognize the deep roots of the crises and the long-term dynamics of global social developments. Those who hold grand visions, second, are in turn divided between techno-optimists and apocalyptic thinkers. Techno-optimists argue that humankind has faced many problems in the course of history, and it has overcome them by inventing new solutions. Despite setbacks, there is a recognizable path of progress in the human condition, as m…