The universe is gasping for breath, with apocalyptic signs ruling the roost

Suresh Chandra Sarangi

The whispers are growing strong in a disenchanted world, throughout 2024 and continue to hammer our psyche in the early weeks of 2025. Inequality, exploitation, authoritarian rules, ethnic and domestic violence, racial prejudices, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, immigration, environmental catastrophe, and finally war of biblical proportions is wrapping the world and planet Earth, that blue dot. The universe is gasping for breath, with apocalyptic signs ruling the roost. The social maladies, religious conflicts, civil commotion, political Unrest, and economic upheaval define the present world.

The neoliberal economic order being in crisis, after the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019, creates a serious turbulence in the politico-economic order/ disorder. The culture of vulgar consumerism, the controversial social media, the philosophies of the rightwing politicians, and crisis-ridden capitalism, make the world a more vulnerable place to live in. The realities of life are too harsh, and too complicated, where greed and profits become the foundation stone of industry and business, dreams and aspirations of a common man get extinguished. The market dictates things, and there is commoditization of human beings. Finally, pleasure, greed, and war make life short, harmony disorderly, and peace a causality.

Lost Decade
The next convergence, as Nobel laureate Michael Pence would call it, would be the story of survival vs extinction. In a politically fragmented world, in the post-war period, the G7 countries dictated the world policy to be substituted by the 20 nations christened as G20, combining advanced countries and high-growth countries. Already remarked by the World Bank economist as a” lost decade”, the remarkable journey is being punctuated by high-profile wars, which further dampens the spirit of globalization. Trade agreements are being ripped up, economic cooperation is thrown out of the window. While real wages stagnate, the suffering of the working class is unheard of and unheeded.

Many are bewildered by a fast-changing global economy, upset by the might of Artificial Intelligence, where robots are taking away our jobs, and environmental disasters like the Los Angeles fire exemplifying the worst effect of global climate change, what is the remedy? Artificial Intelligence and the complicated web are distorting the world economy and the youth are unanimous in one thing, who moved our jobs, sleeping with anxiety to welcome a world without job.

The lure of the deceptive capitalist economy, politics, and culture is in a way responsible for the present impasse and the fatigued world beset with the burden of two wars, suffering the ignominy in silence. No doubt, there is a transition in economy, society, and politics to define a new order. Environmental crisis and the issues of global warming is more threatening than anytime ever in human history. The irreparable and irreversible threats are mind-blowing and frequently reflected in erratic weather patterns. The neoliberal narrative is under pressure, due to economic concentration in the hands of a few, and the fabric of democratic temperament is under test. There is a crisis of governance and the result of internal contradictions. In a way, there seems to be an end to economic globalization, and a rise in surveillance capitalism, and the politics of dissent is buried silently. American capitalism is under threat, its reserve currency of the world, the dollar feels isolated, and its politics of rabid nationalism is challenged now by the reactionary China waiting for a head-on collision.

The wars in both Ukraine and Gaza, although the war seems to have subsided in Gaza with Hamas possibly agreeing to a ceasefire and release of hostages, may temporarily lead to a thaw. The World appears to be more vulnerable today with lethal weapons, chemical warfare, and nuclear arsenals. The war in the Middle East with the entanglement of the superpowers, the US on one side with its allies and China and Russia on the other side, it feels like the third world war would be fought there.

In both wars, the world seems to be divided between the Western capitalist power on one side and the totalitarian powers on the other side. Geopolitical polarization with Iran taking the side of Palestine is a new development of the global south getting militarised. The threat of China attacking Taiwan may trigger another global conflagration, there have been new developments in international relations, and proves beyond a point that the world is multilateral now. Let us see what happens after Trump assumes power. Whatever the outcome, the world appears to be a dangerous place to live in and under constant threat of war.

At the present juncture, the world seems to be a melting pot of War and the unprecedented confluence of major and minor crises. It all started with COVID-19, surging energy prices, staggering inflation, fractured supply chains, the debilitating Russia-Ukraine war, the erratic weather pattern. The uncontrolled towering inferno in California, and the colossal loss of human beings, nature’s flora and fauna and properties.

Politically, in the firmament of international politics, in the post-World War period, there was a bipolar world then a unipolar world, and then a multipolar world. Gradually, a new world international order appeared on the skyline with no respect for international organizations, most importantly, the United Nations, whose romantic interlude after the world war period has vanished and nobody listens to the world body with veto power of the security council being most misused.

Nuke Threats
Putin’s nuke threat in retaliation to US missiles is the most destabilizing factor in the continued war between Russia and Ukraine. The rise of China, its military strength, it is the modernization of infrastructure, its potential entry into the world market with a seminal role, and its BRI project is a slow entry into the world to dislodge the world as being the numero uno is an iron price in the soul of USA.
All said and done, global cooperation is in shambles. Regionalism appears to have its heyday, as observed in the Middle East, though the G20 Bali Summit provides some optimism in a dangerously lived world. The emergence of BRICS as a potent force in the world arena was fraught with danger after President-elect Donald Trump advocated imposing a 100% Tariff against those BRICS nations. Once America realized that there was an attempt to weaken the power of the greenback, it fumed.

NATO seems to be more united now than ever in history in thwarting the imperialistic ambition of Russia. With Trump’s appearance in US politics as president, the war may take a major turn. The Cold War today is a more violent form of war than it was in the past. It appears that the world is in a period of end to the contemporary history. Some shocks are minor, some shocks are major, and intense climate change is ruling the roost. One of the most dangerous developments is disruptions to world trade and globalization, a weathering away of the supply chains, a rise in poverty, and disaster striking the old and young in the Middle East and Ukraine, with acute shortages of food and energy in many parts of the world. In the new year, the world seems to be in great chaos.

Under these circumstances, India plays a key role of detached attachment, with its policy of global cooperation, while pursuing its national interest and is never entangled in any military block. The newfound status of India, being one of the fastest growing economies with its technological power has made it a strong partner in world progress. The question now is how to save the post-world order end war and restore peace.

The post-world war period is gradually degenerating into a myth with world institutions being subdued to American hegemonism. Expansionism and revisionism never had been or neither would be helpful to bring the next convergence. There appears to be no striking hedge against the present imbroglio. Maybe when the dust settles in Ukraine and the smoke will wash away in Ukraine, a new cooperation model shall emerge from the ashes of the war. It all depends upon the strategy and politics of Donald Trump. Let the pendulum swing for the better. A shift in policy and perspectives may bring international coordination, with ushering in ecological sustainability.

(The writer is a former General Manager of Bank of India and currently a visiting professor at KIIT School of Management. Views expressed are personal.)

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