The editors of the Collins English Dictionary have declared ‘permacrisis’ to be their word of the year for 2022… defined as an “an extended period of instability and insecurity”…
— from ‘Why a global recession is inevitable in 2023’ by Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-chief, The Economist magazine.
That’s a pretty cool word. “Permacrisis”. I don’t know who invented that word, but if I were publishing a dictionary, I would want that word in it.
Assuming it applies to global affairs, and not mundane matters.
My ex-wife Darlene had straight hair, but she wanted curly hair. So she used to get a ‘perm’ about every three months. It was a ‘permanent’ that wasn’t ‘permanent’. Near the end of the three months, she was constantly complaining about her hair.
I don’t think that’s the kind of ‘permacrisis’ the editors of the Collins dictionary are excited about.
What Darlene had, was a bad hair day, What all of us are going to have — in 2023, and maybe indefinitely into the future — is a crisis. But not a wishy-washy, everyday, ‘bad hair day’ crisis. More like, a permanent global recession.
A crisis with some staying-power. The kind of crisis that puts the word ‘crisis’ into ‘crisis’.
No less that The Economist magazine says it’s “inevitable”… and I’m joining their rooting section.
2020 had a crisis, but totally the wrong kind. No one quite knew what was going on, and the experts kept changing their minds. Mask wearing was ‘not recommended’. Then it was ‘mandated’. Then it was ‘optional’, unless you were riding a bus.
The pandemic got worse, then it started getting better. Then it got worse again. The virus kept changing. First it was dangerous, then it was even more dangerous, then it was less dangerous. But we were told it was the same virus, just a different ‘version’ of the same virus.
That’s not the way a crisis ought to be handled. People like consistency.
If we’re going to have a crisis, we want it to be permanent. None of this back-and-forth business.
Either give me permanent security… or give me permanent insecurity. I really don’t care which. Just don’t yank my chain.
Although… I will be the first to admit that ‘permanent insecurity’ sounds a little bit like an oxymoron. Like, if we’re feeling insecure, that implies that we don’t know what’s coming next. But if we’re permanently insecure, at least we know what’s coming next. More insecurity, right?
One good investment, for the period of permanent insecurity predicted to start in 2023, would no doubt be psychedelics. Nothing can make a person feel more permanently insecure than a bad LSD trip. (Or so I’m told.)
And just as the doctor ordered, Colorado voters have now made several psychedelic substances legal.
Natural psychedelics including psilocybin were officially decriminalized in Colorado — ‘officially’ — on December 27, with a proclamation from Gov. Jared Polis, declaring that Proposition 122 received a majority of votes in the November election. That proposition received about 54% of the vote in the November 8 election, garnering the approval of nearly 1.3 million voters.
If you believe what you find in a Google search, mushrooms are closer to humans — in terms of their DNA — than they are to plants. How close? I’m not exactly sure, but it’s completely possible that humans are evolved from mushrooms. Or vice versa.
I would never have guessed that nearly 1.3 million Coloradans think psilocybin is a good idea.
But what better way to get through a period of permanent insecurity? Gives us something to look forward to.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.