Existential crisis is the new normal. The only people not suffering an existential crisis seem to be José Mourinho, Philip Green and the serried ranks of the entitled One Per Cent. Everyone else is growing increasingly anxious that everything is crumbling around them. Politics is being driven by these worries. Political leaders and movements will be defined by how they understand and articulate these existential challenges and the answers they provide.
The economy is not working for most people, whose incomes have been stagnant for at least a decade, their jobs increasingly insecure and their future uncertain. Many established companies fear they will soon be disrupted by digital start-ups. The financial system – overly complex, concentrated and self-interested – was only recently saved from catastrophe by extraordinary measures of state support. Political systems are being drained of legitimacy as establishment parties find themselves prey to insurgent populist movements. The European Union is suffering its own existential crisis following the Brexit vote, which also casts in doubt the future of the United Kingdom. All of this is taking place against a backdrop of mounting environmental crisis as the climate warms and competition mounts over critical resources. The sense that everything is falling to bits is compounded by the threat of Islamic terrorism, symbolised by the home-grown devotees of Isis, with their disdain for modern, liberal values of equal rights, democracy and free speech.
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