Crises

The shock of the economic crisis has rudely awakened us from the dream of well-being in which we slumbered. With almost no period of transition we have gone from a life free of concerns about what lay ahead of us to flock in despair towards an uncertain future about which pronouncements are taking the form of a constant flow of dark forebodings. Although the economy is the spearhead of the crisis, the feeling that everything is running down, that this is the end of an era, is similarly affecting other aspects of the present: the political power game, aesthetic judgement, the basic ethics of shared existence, our corners of intimacy, our relationship with the planet and our ability to imagine possible worlds. Yet are not crises also times of great agitation and creativity? Do they not always open up an interlude of freedom before the crystallising of a new order? The big questions have been raised once again. With what tools shall we face the challenge of providing answers?