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Nick’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.
On Cosmopolitanism and its Discontent

Cosmopolitanism is neither the fictive invention of an individual mind, nor the unique fetish shared by a specific group.  Cosmopolitanism may never become a geo-political entity with an organizational structure and a leadership group. There has never been a cosmopolitan top-down agenda, but cosmopolitanism has perdured from the bottom – outwards. We should not wait for cosmo-liberators, but that does not mean we have no regard for material resources and external exigencies. To see how it transpires, in either the indignation against the constriction of the commons or the in the creation of other worlds, we will need a new approach for understanding companionship in the world. Cosmopolitanism is always there because it is in the air. It is never revealed or discovered as an entity, as it is only experienced and imagined as a process. It is neither the product of individual will, nor the found amidst historical ruins. It is not an object that can be measured, but it reveals itself in the constant trace of fellowship. Looking for cosmopolitanism in the map of empires or the building of state institutions is an exercise in disenchantment. The Ancients Greeks believed that love for the city was the best form of defense of the city. The love of cosmopolitanism is not a renunciation of the place you belong to and an abstract declaration of love for everything and anywhere. It is on the contrary a love for a place determined from the freedom to love all places. It is a love of here that is burnished through the exposure to everywhere. Cosmopolitanism is not just an escape from the self-imposed strictures of provincialism. It is the widest possible form of belonging and being. 

H. G. Wells captured the paradoxical status of cosmopolitanism. Despite its constant allure and perpetual speculations, at no stage has any city been built on the ideals of cosmopolitanism. It is always in the air. Yet, the idea never vanished like all impossible ideals should. On the contrary, even in the absence of any material manifestation, it keeps returning in mutant forms. This tension between the conceptual and the material may lead us to yearn for a coming cosmopolitanism. But this could miss the point that it also exists in every moment in time. It is formed through an appeal to the reality of the idea, and not in response to a reality in the world. In this singular, fleeting, bubbling action of relations a moment of time glistens into being and becomes something that is grasped as it disappears without a trace. It is there in the actuality of the moment, but nothing is left behind. No trace, no record, neither a concrete claim on history nor a direct political proposition. Like contemporary art, we can ask of cosmopolitanism, is that it? And, yet in its experience there is also an irrefutable presence, a reiteration of its actual existence. Cosmopolitanism is always there in history even if it leaves no trace of itself. It is there in the capacity to refer to something that is bigger than the ego and wider than the place in which our sense of the world is formed. This capacity to think and connect, to go beyond that which is at hand, opens up the constant but fleeting possibility and always unique experience of being cosmopolitan. Therefore the paradoxical expression that that the cosmos is coming is neither a nostalgic lament, nor a wallowing expectation, it is the constitutive tension that creates cosmopolitanism. There is no cosmopolitanism without the sudden, seemingly novel and unannounced, eruption of creation. 

Nikos Papastergiadis is Director of the Research Unit in Public Cultures and Professor at the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne and Visiting Professor in the School of Art, Design and Media, at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Chair of the International Advisory Board for the Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore. Co-chair of the Cultural Advisory Board for the Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture, Melbourne. His current research focuses on the investigation of the historical transformation of contemporary art and cultural institutions by digital technology. His publications include Modernity as Exile (1993), Dialogues in the Diaspora (1998), The Turbulence of Migration (2000), Metaphor and Tension (2004) Spatial Aesthetics: Art Place and the Everyday (2006), Cosmopolitanism and Culture (2012), Ambient Perspectives (2014),  On Art and Friendship (2020), The Museums of the Commons (2020) as well as being the author of numerous essays which have been translated into over a dozen languages and appeared in major catalogues such as the Biennales of Sydney, Liverpool, Istanbul, Gwanju, Taipei, Lyon, Thessaloniki and Documenta 13.

Preethi ‘s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.

Collective action for our collective future

  1. Trying to recollect the turn of the last year of the last decade has felt like recounting the end of a noisy party.

Indeed 2019 was loud. It was the year of the “young protester,” with far reaching repercussions from Sudan to Lebanon, from Iraq to Chile. Young civilians mobilised on the streets and online, documenting ground realities, and de-escalating confrontations with remarkable poise. For those of us sitting on the sidelines, a new avatar of activism emerged and rapidly evolved. At unprecedented rates, activists plugged into social media networks, manifesting into national demonstrations on social justice issues that resonated across the world.

And then a screeching halt. The movement flatlined – physically and figuratively.

  1. One of the most debilitating health-crises known to several generations numbed the euphoria. The air, sound and optic waves became consumed by the fear of contagion. The streets went silent.
  2. The silence is stirring. Listen closely and you will hear the first murmurs of a collective movement towards post-capitalism.

The pandemic has not stifled the global-local impetus for change. The unsung heroines and heroes of 2019, some of whom are migrating against the tide or staying while others leave – they are still fighting. Many are carving out roles for themselves as agents of change amid national crises, while amplifying the voices of others without agency.

At a time when border restrictions between the global north and south are at their most restrictive, we are paradoxically drawn closer by our similar quests for equity. More than ever, political strife and disparities in the so-called developed north share the travails of the south. Intersectional interests are gaining new ground. Whether these voices of collective actions are reaching a “critical mass” in their own contexts has become less clear, since the pandemic took over global attention.

The pandemic period has forced a pause on most activity. This period has shown the worst consequences of governments and corporations being bedfellows and wielding draconian powers to preserve each other’s prosperity. As we continue to grapple over vaccine acquisitions, distributions and rollouts, labour markets and entire economies are teetering towards collapse.

Those of us featured in this Advisory Board have had the privilege of using this pause to ponder and posture. But this escalating crisis beckons action. How we can better capture the combined impact of collective actions across the globe? How can we stir the silence into renewed efforts? How can social justice movements across continents be linked to each other, in ways that erode the artificial boundaries between the global north and south? Amid a historic crisis that has left none of us unscathed, we have a unique opportunity. We can trigger new thinking and collective actions that pivot the world towards horizontal power structures.

This could be the beginning of dismantling the corporate capitalist architectures that have dominated our economies, societies and collective psyches. We simply cannot lose more time.

Writer, researcher and visual storyteller, Preethi Nallu reports on the topics of migration and freedom of expression for news media, UN agencies, think tanks and advocacy groups. Born in Iran, raised in India, Preethi has lived and worked in 15 countries across the globe. 

Preethi started covering migration in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the 2008 Gaza War. She moved to the Thai-Myanmar border in 2010 to report about the lives of displaced ethnic minorities amid political reforms. As new waves of refugees arrived in Europe, following the ‘Arab Spring’ events, Preethi covered the Mediterranean and Balkan crossings as founding editor at Refugees Deeply. As borders to Europe closed in 2016, she started documenting the conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and deportations of Afghan refugees from Europe. She is now working in Central America, with a focus on Mexico as a “buffer zone” for asylum seekers arriving from the region.

Additionally, Preethi leads a global media collaborations program at Copenhagen based International Media Support. She carries out advocacy campaigns related to freedom of expression and safety of journalists and rights advocates in countries of the global south. 

Beral’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.

Modernist east-west intersections, ongoing dichotomy between visible and invisible partners; on the roots of today’s political, economic, cultural crisis.

As a curator and art critic from Turkey, I am observing and interpreting the socio-political and economic state of affairs in the region and its international relations from a position of being used to live continuously in dilemmas and crisis. Most of the time I deeply recognize the effects of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire, when the national borders were mapped regardless to the ethnic and traditional realities. The expired Modernist identicalness, identity and consciousness, similarities in Capitalism and its political, social and cultural infrastructures, conditions of Post-modernism could not erase the deep-rooted conflicts.

The East-West discourse, which is the victorious invention of 20th century capitalism, is still prevailing under other titles. Various classifications that survive despite the narratives of globalism has roots in differences between Greek and Chinese world views and philosophical origins and became popular during the Orientalism movement of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The concept often defines the West as an objective analytical society, usually in regards to technology and industrial advancement. In contrast, the East is viewed as a subjective intuitive-based society, usually emphasizing spirituality and mysticism.
Has this definition changed?

It is reflected in various forms and concepts in art, demography, education, history, ideology, linguistics, medicine, philosophy, politics, psychology, science-fiction, and sociology and gender roles. Throughout 20th century, up until the 80’s in the Western art historical discourse, the East was a resource for inspiration but not a partner for cultural dialogue. Dialogue, under the rather “behind schedule” influence of post-colonial, post-structural and post-modern discourse started in the 90’s and it is an ongoing process, which is for two decades is rather polluted by Neo-capitalism and religious narratives.

Who is influencing the global culture & art now? Considering the heterogeneous populations in the mega cities, with continuous flow of refugees and migrants, the control is not an easy task of official or private culture policies. The West has conquered the East politically and culturally in the past, but since 1990 that expansion is confronting a dramatic reversal. Western scholars have appropriated the exploration and interpretation of the Orient’s languages, history and culture for themselves. Now, the scholars of the East are deconstructing this language under the conditions of Neo-capitalism and religious dogmas.

Turkey is one of the first countries which adopted itself into the 20. century conditions, in comparison to its neighbors; that is before 1990, when the Soviet countries still lived in socialism and communism. This could happen in spite of the anti-democratization process of the 1980’s military coup. Culture industry became independent and privatized; the last culture-scape is what one can see in Istanbul even if there is still a problematic gap of theoretical and practical infrastructures and analyses of artistic and creative productions.

The well programmed interest and projects of EU cultural policy to the art and culture scenes of South Caucasus, Middle East towards West-Asia from 1990 on revealed a remarkable counter-offensive (when not counter-attack) to the ongoing cold-war type political manipulations or unwarranted wars that is being staged on this geography. This counter-offensive, emanating from the intellectuals and cultural institutions in collaboration with the private sector initiatives, also indicated to a silent but strong resistance to war-making politics. The reverberations of this action have been observed in the increasing number of private and institutional collaborative projects. Here, I would like to point out that the artists and art experts of these countries are welcoming all kinds of collaborations from EU, but with the expectation of being reciprocal in every milieu. This attitude advocated the fact if there is some kind of understanding and learning, or going against the winds of war, it should be done together.

For this vast geography duality is still a problematic that should be questioned or tackled within the democratization processes. This momentum requires a progressive movement such as DiEM25, which is persistently dissecting the truths behind the ongoing global tragedies and Neo-Capitalist interests. Considering the ongoing clash, terror and crisis currently concentrated in the East-Mediterranean, Braudel’s romantically described “Cradle of Civilisation” seems to be Dante’s Hell. Islam is a religion incorporating the heritage of previous civilizations; however, Islamisation – even using all the tools of Neo-Capitalism- denying the beliefs and values in its source, going against the essential Islamic faith has failed to benefit from the enlightenment of Modernism. As Daryush Shayegan has disclosed, İslamic countries failing to adopt Modernism are living through it with a mutilated consciousness which is embellished with a hollow and perplexed Post-modernism. I believe DiEM25, empowered with meta ‘s mission is an opportunity to heal this mutilation. This international intellectual, artistic, scholarly and cultural hub for radical progressive movements across Europe should reach this part of the world as soon as possible.

Beral Madra, a critic and curator, founder and director Gallery BM and BM Contemporary Art Centre and the Archive (since 1980); Lives and works in Istanbul. She coordinated the 1st (1987) and the 2nd (1989) Istanbul Biennale, curated the Pavilion of Turkey in 43rd, 45th, 49th, 50th and 51st Venice Biennale, co-curated the exhibition Modernities and Memories- Recent Works from the Islamic World in 47th Venice Biennale. Curated Central Asia Pavilion in 53rd (2009) and the Pavilion of Azerbaijan at 54th (2011) Venice Biennale. Curated Alanica, South Ossetia (2013), Sinopale (2006, 2008, 2012) , Çanakkale Biennale (2012-2014), co-curated 8th Bucharest Biennale (2018). Since 1984 she has organized more than 250 local and international artists in her art centres and in other official art spaces in Turkey. She curated and co-curated over 50 group shows in international capitals. She mentored Istanbul Scholarship of Berlin Senate with 60 artists (1995-2013). She founded and lectured in the Art Management Department of Design of Yıldız Technical University (1998-2002). She is founding member of Diyarbakır Art Centre (2002-2010) ; Foundation of Future Culture and Art (since 1994); Founder and Honorary President of AICA, Turkey (established 2003); 2010 Istanbul Culture Capital Visual Arts direcor; artistic advisor of Gate27, Artist Residency (2019-2021). Publications: “Identity of Contemporary Art” (1987), “Post-peripheral Flux-A Decade of Contemporary Art in Istanbul” (1996); “İki Yılda Bir Sanat” (Essays on Biennale) (2003); “Neighbours in Dialogue” (2005 “Maidan” Essays on Contemporary Art in South Caucasus and Middle East, BM CAC Publications, 2007. “Home Affairs”, Essays on Contemporary Art in Turkey, BM CAC Publications, 2009.

Ken and Paul’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.

The following is an excerpt from the screenplay of the film “SORRY WE MISSED YOU” written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach.

Liza Jane, aged 11, is in a delivery van with her father Ricky. It’s a Saturday and she is giving her father a hand deliver the parcels; during the week Ricky is back so late from his work he hardly sees her. Ricky considers himself to be an “owner driver franchisee”; in other words a self employed van driver, master of his own destiny. [Liza Jane is fascinated by the shiny black HAND HELD DEVICE which is used to scan every parcel. She fidgets with it as Ricky drives the van.]

LIZA JANE
It can text, phone, photograph, scan, contact the customer…
anything else?

RICKY
Bloody well bleep! I hear it in my dreams… bleeps if I am out of the
cab for more than two minutes…

LIZA JANE
So they know where you are?

RICKY
To the exact metre… and they can track each parcel… to the back
door to the garden shed…

LIZA JANE
Boing! Bouncing of a satellite… right here into this wee black box… amazing isn’t it? Spy in the cab… [She mocks speaking into it]
Hello….Liza Jane here… I like bananas! Ricky chuckles.

RICKY
Working out the exact route… the traffic… the weather… estimated
time of arrival… and cuts out if you arrive early! In case there is a preciser.

LIZA JANE
But why do they need it to the exact time?

RICKY
What the big companies do now… order it online before midnight… guarantee it the next day if they pay a bit extra… within the hour.

LIZA JANE
But it means you have to go zigzagging all over the place, out of order… do they know how late you finish?
Ricky glances at her.

RICKY
You’re full of questions darling…

LIZA JANE
But who puts it all in here?

RICKY
What do you mean

LIZA JANE
Somebody must think about it…put all the information inside…somebody must have done that…[tapping the device] I mean really put it in…

RICKY
Must be a robot, or an app, or a programme…

LIZA JANE
But somebody must feed the robot in
the first place…

RICKY
Some specky geek I suppose…

LIZA JANE
Who never goes to the toilet. [Ricky looks at her] Well, they
measure everything else…why not time for the toilet?
Ricky chuckles and shakes his head.

RICKY
Didn’t get those brains from me.
[SORRY WE MISSED YOU – SCENE 19]

……………………………………………

During lockdown I met a driver on my street in Edinburgh who was finishing off a 14 hour shift. He often worked between 12 and 14 hours a day. His eyes were sunken, and his skin was grey. He reminded me of one of the drivers I met while carrying out research for the above screenplay who told me “I feel like a tube of toothpaste… all squeezed out.” I asked him how he was; it seemed like the final blow and it looked like he was about to burst out crying. Some child’s Dad, somebody’s partner, and bogus self employed driver, key worker.

So here we are, 2021, homo sapiens, manacled to an app, delivering our hearts desire to the doorstep at break neck speed with mind boggling efficiency while the driver is pushed to collapse in a shift that would shame the Victorians, but not Amazon. The word algorithm has a long history and can be traced back to a 9th century mathematician. In those days slavery flourished. It does today too, but the shackles come dressed up to our front doors in a shiny hand held device; from the same doors that the public applauded key workers so enthusiastically but without the curiosity of a child like Liza Jane, who tried to make the connections.

Ken Loach is an English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001). Loach’s film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice. He is a member of DiEM25’s Advisory Panel.

Paul Laverty is an Irish-Scottish lawyer and scriptwriter, born in Calcutta, India, (1957). He studied Philosophy at Gregorian University, Rome, and Law at the University of Glasgow, and received the Fulbright Award in 1984. In the mid-eighties, he traveled to Nicaragua, Central America, and lived there for almost three years. He worked for a Nicaraguan human rights organization. During this time, he traveled widely in Guatemala and El Salvador which were both in a state of civil war. He has remained keenly interested in Latin American affairs ever since. After his time in Central America, Laverty made contact with the director Ken Loach and since then they have been working in constant collaboration.

Srećko’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.

Perhaps there is no system in human history that has been proclaimed dead so many times as capitalism.

It evolved out of the “long” 16th century which was a result of the protracted crisis of feudalism. When Black Death arrived to Europe aboard trading ships laden with goods from China and infected two-thirds of the overall population, it didn’t just kill millions of people, it killed feudalism itself.

And it was this tragic pandemic that was at the same time a harbinger of the age of capitalism, which would include the industrial revolution, imperialism and colonialism, while turning the planet – humans, other species and nature itself – into a seemingly neverending source for extraction, exploitation and expansion.

Today we are faced with the Covid-pandemic which is not the same as Black Death, but due to our contemporary historic context and the failures of late capitalism (from the privatization of health care systems to decades of austerity) already acquires a major economic and social importance in shaping not only the future of capitalism but the future of the planet itself.

It’s still, of course, easier to imagine the end of the world, as Fredric Jameson famously put it, than the end of capitalism. But what if precisely today, when the end of the world (extinction of species and the destruction of the biosphere) seems rather certain, we also have to imagine the end of capitalism?

Today, more than ever, we need speculative critical theory, a sort of critical theory that is based on speculative scenarios and imaginations, whether through philosophy or arts, but we also need a sort of speculative critical praxis in the sense of creating the postcapitalist future in the “here and now”.

“Postcapitalism” doesn’t necessarily have to be better than capitalism. Most likely, it can be far worse, it can easily turn into a sort of techno-feudalism with total surveillance and automation of human behaviour or even a sort of planetary dictatorship based on biopolitics, apartheid and genocide. Or it can turn out even much worse, our planet could turn into an uninhabitable planet with a few tribes of last survivors after the climate collapse or nuclear catastrophe.

Unfortunately, today all these dystopian scenarios seem more probable than the utopian alternatives.

But “postcapitalism” can —and must— be something much better than the system that has lead to planetary suffocation. Even if Extinction is at horizon, our contemporary historic moment can —and must— be a chance, precisely because the pandemic has been speeding up a historic transformation that would otherwise take decades or centuries. And we don’t have centuries anymore.

In order to create a future after capitalism as short or long as this future might be, “postcapitalism” —as ambiguous as it is— has to be explored by academics, artists and activists. Is there a better place for such a center than Athens?

Seize mέta!

Srećko Horvat is a philosopher from Croatia. He has been active in various movements for the past two decades. He co-founded the Subversive Festival in Zagreb and, together with Yanis Varoufakis, founded DiEM25. He published more than a dozen books translated into 15 languages, most recently Poetry from the Future, Subversion!, The Radicality of Love,  What Does Europe Want? and After the Apocalypse.

Antara’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta. 

The Future History of Capitalism: An Abridged Story

Once upon a time, we were told a story 

It went like this: 

The bounties of the earth are endless, and we could all be rich without limit

The formula required just one, surprising, magic ingredient —

Human selfishness. 

We were told this tale by those who claimed to be Men of Science 

And, so, we believed them. 

The story started well 

In the Kingdoms of the North, peace reigned at last—and with it, came prosperity like never before 

And for the newly-freed Kingdoms of the South, or so they were told, it was just a matter of time 

It was a question of science after all: the alchemy of the art of selfishness. 

Seasons came and seasons went

Yet, the promised prosperity remained the exclusive preserve of the North 

Was it because the people of the South were simply not scientific enough? 

Then, one dark autumnal day, came a storm 

So powerful was this tornado that it ripped the golden plaster off the edifice of the Northern Empires 

And revealed what lay below as decaying and hollow. 

But, even now, the Men of Science averted their gaze; turned a blind eye

A strange sort of science, indeed; to be so immune to evidence… 

But the tempest had taken its toll 

Internecine battles broke out within the Kingdoms of the North; Northerner fought Northerner

And prosperity dwindled; for the many, even if not the few 

But faith in the God-like qualities of Man, especially Selfish Man, remained unshaken 

To cull the infinite from the finite 

To craft technology without teleology 

To do good without being good 

The might of man was never in question… 

Until the Plague that is. 

And as it froze the frame, around the world 

The perversions of the way that had been were brought sharply into focus 

And other ways of being illuminated. 

The prospect of progress is (natural) science, not speculation…

Change is possible! 

The disproof of the dominant axioms—the gospel of the so-called Men of Science—is around us, in us

In the intrinsic goodness that has propelled us this far

For Selfish Man is Man-Made, and for Man to Unmake 

By escaping the confines of an Outdated Theory 

The portal to a New Reality is a New Theory 

By reckoning with the true contours of human nature 

Something wonderful could be set in motion

For the whirring in the background…might just be that of the moral machinery clicking into action 

And the Birth of a New Protagonist:

One of reason but also emotion, science but also art 

Of joy and belonging, community and caring 

Rooted in ritual, but unshackled by the past.  

And, with a new protagonist would come the prospect of a new plot 

Not of man against man (or woman), or North against South 

But of meaning that is co-created, by Self and Other 

Beyond the dichotomies of selfishness and altruism: a narrative of (civic) friendship.

And with the start of a new story, comes the possibility…of a new civilization 

Perhaps even a happy ending?

Dr Antara Haldar holds the inaugural position in Empirical Legal Studies at the University of Cambridge, where she is a tenured University Lecturer at the Faculty of Law and teaches courses on law, economics and philosophy. She concurrently holds appointments at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Judge Business School, and is a Governing Body Fellow at Peterhouse (Cambridge’s oldest college). She is currently on a Fellowship at Stanford University and is also a Faculty Visitor at Harvard University. She convenes The Common Currency Project, an international alliance of some of the world’s leading scholars engaged in rethinking economics.

Noam’s view on postcapitalism. – A contribution to mέta.
Post-covid – Progressive International

In the early years of the industrial revolution, working people bitterly condemned the attack on their fundamental rights and dignity in the factory system. They were not just protesting the brutality of working conditions and miserable pay, but more fundamentally, the very fact that they were compelled to be subjects of an autocratic master, indeed for most of their waking lives. They were drawing from a live tradition tracing back to classical antiquity: the “servile and demeaning labor” for wages is “a contract to servitude,” Cicero held, expressing the common view. The same perceptions were quickly revived among those compelled to rent themselves to survive under the rising industrial system. The official journal of organized labor in the US, the Knights of Labor, featured articles on “Wage Slavery and Chattel Slavery,” expounding the common understanding that “wage slavery stands today as one of the greatest barriers to the progress of civilization.” Similar ideas were slogans of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party. Skilled workers warned that a day might come when wage slaves “will so far forget what is due to manhood as to glory in a system forced on them by their necessity and in opposition to their feelings of independence and self-respect” – a day they hoped would be “far distant.”

Determining the shape of the post-pandemic world will surely be a terrain of intense struggle, with many dimensions. Those who created and have greatly benefited from the particularly savage form of capitalism to which much of the world has been subjected for 40 years are working hard to ensure that it persists, in harsher form, with new tools of surveillance and control. A much better world can be achieved, and must be. A primary goal should be to remove this great barrier to the progress of civilization, to end the system of servitude by moving toward the goals of the Knights and the populist movement of farmers, and the rising left worldwide, calling for a collective commonwealth in which production and communities would be controlled democratically by participants, a vision that could take many forms, guided by the goal of an end to servitude in all aspects of life.

A new and better world is in reach. To progress towards it we must grasp the opportunities, which do exist, to overcome imminent and existential threats, literally threats to survival of organized human life, and the lives of myriad other species that we are extinguishing with abandon. One lesson that the pandemic has reinforced with stark clarity is that our choice is between genuine internationalism or virtual extinction. The current and coming pandemics have no boundaries. Nor does the destruction of the environment that sustains life. Nor do the plagues of injustice and repression. Institutions designed for pursuit of gain, not the common good, are a prescription for suicide, and not in the distant future.

The good news is that feasible solutions are at hand to problems great and small. The grim reality is that not much time remains to implement them, an incredible challenge, an inspiring opportunity.

Professor Noam Chomsky is considered the founder of modern linguistics. He has received numerous awards, including the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal and the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science. Chomsky joined the UA in fall 2017, coming from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked since 1955 and was Institute Professor, later Institute Professor emeritus. He is a member of DiEM25’s Advisory Panel and of the Progressive International’s Council.

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