Permacrisis or Permacreation - The Choice is Ours

11/4/2022

A few days ago, UK-based Harper Collins -- publisher of the Collins English Dictionary -- declared the noun permacrisis to be its "Word of the Year" for 2022.

Defined as "an extended period of insecurity and instability", permacrisis apparently epitomizes the "dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another as people wonder what new horrors might be around the corner."

In my opinion, permacrisis is the perfect word to describe the post-2020 "given world"-- that heavy, burdensome, stifling, un-creative, impersonal, stultifying, terrorizing, oppressive, objectified world that demands unconditional obedience and submission to its obscuring of Reality.

The word fits because crisis has become the default setting of the given world, which will intentionally remain in crisis mode until it is eventually overwhelmed by the perma-crises it willfully generates, implements, and foments.

Those who remain obedient and submissive to the dictates and machinations of the given world will experience and live the "reality" of permacrisis in the same way they experienced and lived the "reality" of the one of the given world's Words of 2021 -- vax.

While permacrisis suits the "reality" of the given world, it is not an accurate definition of Reality -- more precisely, God's Creation.

Permacrisis does not and cannot exist in Creation. What exists in Creation is creation itself -- the acts, thoughts, and processes of ongoing and open creativity inspired and motivated by love, hope, and freedom between and among Beings.

Permacrisis may be the given world's Word of the Year for 2022, but it does not apply and cannot be applied to God's Creation. To do so would be a category error.

The only way to overcome the given world and its Words of the Year is to become aware of Creation and begin to think and "live" the reality of permacreation.

11 Comments

bruce charlton

11/4/2022 09:48:53

"permacrisis is the perfect word "

I would have to dissent!

As would be expected with an Establishment-approved coinage, this is a tendentious word, which is a renaming and reframing of the old communist idea (invented by Marx/ Engels, but popularized by Trotsky) of Permanent Revolution.

By terming it a crisis, 'They' are attempting to shirk responsibility for the predictable consequences of their policies and actions.

Crisis is a relatively neutral descriptor, but this 'crisis' is actually planned, engineered and sustained - therefore more of a revolutionary phenomenon.

Also, the 'perma' aspect seems misleading, as the situation developing is not permanent, but rapidly destructive hence fundamentally transformative.

If the most powerful of the current globalists get the nuclear conflict that they are working so hard to create (as soon as possible); then the outcome will be to destroy even the possibility of continuing the present civilization in those parts of the world it affects (presumably much of Europe); and the repercussions will be unavoidable everywhere.

So - while I agree with your analysis, I don't agree with the permacrisis name since it is neither genuinely perma nor a crisis.

Although, so long as the West-dominant rulers are atheist-materialist-leftist in nature - the revolution will indeed be 'permanent', in so far as they can make it so...

Francis Berger

11/4/2022 10:27:10

@ Bruce - The dissent is warranted from the non-given world perspective you have taken (which is the right perspective), but from the perspective of the given world, it is a "perfect" word precisely for the reasons you touch upon (it's misleading, disingenuous, dishonest, manipulative, etc.).

JMSmith

11/4/2022 10:40:23

Permacrisis does seem to fit these times, but the construction is also an oxymoron. Hippocrates coined the word crisis as the name of the "make or break" phase of a fever and I think we need that concept. A society can muddle through a "permacrisis," but in a true crisis it is "do or die." A true crisis is existential (and "existential crisis" is redundant).

This post jogged some thoughts about creation. If Genesis is our authority, creation is creation of goodness. I find this encouraging since it places creation within reach of everyone. Opening the window in a stuffy room is creative, as is smiling at a stranger or making your wife laugh. A great deal of evil has been done in the name of "making the world a better place," but anything that actually does make the world a better place is creative.

11/4/2022 11:08:12

@ JM - I find it rather revealing that a construction like permacrisis -- with its oxymoronic, misleading, tendentious qualities -- was chosen as this year's Word of the Year (not that Word of the Year means anything). I regard it as the planting of a poisonous seed. Learn this word because you're going to need it to describe the world we are going to "give" to you.

Of course, we only need the word and will only use it if we accept what they want to "give" us. If we see the word for what it is -- and it is easy to see it for what it is -- then we can bypass it and refuse to participate in that given world they so eagerly wish to provide.

Better to stay in Reality -- in Creation. And yes, creation is of goodness. Moreover, as Bruce noted in his post on Barfield the other day -- "our conscious choices do not just affect the world; they make the world." If we consciously choose to adopt their Word of the Year as descriptive of the world, then that will become our world and we will assist them in making a permacrisis world. I say assist because if we adopt malevolently-inspired concepts like permacrisis, we are not actually making anything. We are simply responding to the given world. However, if we choose creation, we make the world in a different way.

11/5/2022 14:25:21

I now see more clearly what you are saying. "Permacrisis" is the slogan that will replace "pandemic," just as "pandemic" was a slogan that replaced (or enhanced) "climate change" and the "war on terror." The point is to justify "extraordinary measures" by manufacturing public perception of "extraordinary times." This is similar to the point politicians see in wars, which is to justify "war powers."

I agree that we must eschew their terms and their "frame," but believe we do need terms and a "frame." The data from which they construct their "permacrisis" narrative is real enough, it just does not mean what they tell us it means.

Martin

11/4/2022 17:41:50

Some rather disjointed thoughts of mine in addition to your post….
The future is not set in stone. The heart of God has a goal for the future, and God’s heart is not stone, it is love. God will have his future. And he offers to all humans an opportunity to participate. Those who participate will reap the good life (not necessarily a comfortable life). Those who go their own way will only find destruction (Matt. 7:13-14). This way of speaking is not about going to heaven or hell. It is about participating in the kingdom of God which is God’s plan happening on earth as it is happening in heaven here today. Let’s join him in his goal.

11/4/2022 18:14:28

@ Martin - "Those who participate will reap the good life (not necessarily a comfortable life)."

Yes, I agree with that, but it requires an honest reevaluation of life's ultimate purposes and goals. Unfortunately, many Christians are not ready to sacrifice the comfortable life for the good life, but we are getting closer to the point where the sacrifice may be imposed rather than voluntarily chosen. It will be interesting to see how Christians respond then.

joe gonzales

11/4/2022 17:58:25

Permacrisis decsribes perfectly the state of the last company I worked for. We were always "putting out fires" as they called it because they never hired enough people or allowed for downtime to fix problems properly.

11/4/2022 18:09:59

@ joe - I think that touches on the essence of permacrisis as a tendentious word and concept. In a state of supposed permanent crisis, crisis management becomes a "justifiable essential". Instead of honestly attempting to do something constructive, creative, honest,and good, managers can dedicate their time to putting out fires and thereby thinly obscure their actual mission of "not even trying" to do anything good, constructive, or creative.

Anthony Probst

11/4/2022 21:15:03

This winter may put the inhabitants of Britain and Northern Europe more in mind of 'permafrost'.

lea

11/6/2022 03:33:30

On the shortlist for last year's 'new word of choice' in the NL was 'prikspijt' which roughly translates to 'peck regrets'. Don't remember if that turned out to be the winner, might have been slightly too soon.

I agree that stuff like this is often intended as a subconscious nudge of sorts. As are some of the infamous 'buzz phrases' over the years, which more often than not were completely invisible in terms of search engine hits before being coined, let alone used in regular conversation.

I should dig into that a little more, language matters and it seems a hard sell that synchronized scripts are merely the thing they appear at the very surface.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Permacrisis or Permacreation - The Choice is Ours

Leave a Reply.

Archives