In the climate of crisis

If I did not hear the news for one year, how would I know there is a "global crisis" at hand?

A few shops are closed here and there and some people complain about "slow business" but how different is that then usual? Is it a matter of time before the crisis is present? Culture now gets the axe. Our budget was cut. Do we stop doing culture? Is culture really about money anyway?

How much of human culture in the past was about the preparation and celebration of the crisis of everyday life? Music, stories, dances, rituals, offerings, journeys, hunting, building, working, growing, sowing, reaping and even meditation are all forms of activity that acknowledge the fragility of life in the constant face of crisis eminent in nature and human conflict.

What changes our understanding of crisis when stability and equilibrium are the standards by which we measure the quality of life? According to the news, crisis happens "out there" somewhere in the world where people are confronted by hardship and conditions less ideal than ours. This feeling of the distant foreign and unknown creates a climate of paranoia and constant fear that our stability will be threatened by forces of "chaos" and "anarchy".

reduce, retreat, cut back, cut down, control, conserve, limit, less

do we accept to live in a crisis culture or do we treat crisis with culture?

-john grzinich