The editors of the Collins English Dictionary have declared “permacrisis” to be the word of the year for 2022…defined as “long-term instability and instability”…
—From “Why a Global Recession Is Inevitable in 2023,” by Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist.
That’s a very nice word. “Permacrisis”. I don’t know who invented that word, but if I were to publish a dictionary, I’d like to include that word in it.
Suppose it applies to global problems rather than mundane problems.
My ex-wife Darlene had straight hair, but she wanted curly hair. So she used to get her “perm” about every three months. It was “permanent” not “permanent”. Near the end of 3 months she was constantly complaining about her hair.
I don’t think it’s the kind of “permacrisis” that the editors of the Collins Dictionary are excited about.
What Darlene had was one of the worst days, the crisis that we all face in 2023 and possibly indefinitely. It’s not a “day of crisis”. If anything, it’s a permanent global recession.
A crisis with some degree of persistence. A crisis that puts the word “crisis” into “crisis”.
The Economist says it’s “inevitable”…and I’m in their cheering section.
There was a crisis in 2020, and it was completely wrong. No one knew what was going on, and experts kept changing their minds. Wearing a mask is “not recommended”. Then it was “mandated”. It was an “optional” unless you were on the bus.
The pandemic got worse and then started to recover. Then it got worse again. The virus kept changing. Dangerous at first, then more dangerous, then less dangerous. But I was told it was the same virus, just different “versions” of the same virus.
That’s not how a crisis should be handled. People like consistency.
If a crisis occurs, we want it to last. No business for this round trip.
Either it gives you lasting security, or it gives you lasting insecurity. i really don’t care. Don’t pull on my chain
That said… I’ll be the first to admit that the term “persistent anxiety” sounds a bit contradictory. For example, if we’re feeling anxious, it means we don’t know what’s going to happen next. But if we’re permanently unsafe, at least we know what’s going to happen next. More anxious, right?
One good investment for the period of permanent anxiety projected to begin in 2023 is arguably psychedelic. Nothing makes a person more permanently anxious than a bad LSD trip. (Or so they say.)
And on orders from doctors, Colorado voters have legalized some psychedelic substances.
Natural psychedelics, including psilocybin, were officially decriminalized in Colorado on December 27th. Gov. Jared Polis declared Proposition 122 won a majority of the votes in his November election. The proposal won about 54% of the vote in the Nov. 8 election and won the approval of about 1.3 million voters.
Mushrooms are closer to human DNA than plants, if you’re to believe what you’ve found with a Google search. We don’t know for sure, but it’s quite possible that humans evolved from mushrooms. Or vice versa.
I had no idea that nearly 1.3 million Coloradoans thought psilocybin was a good idea.
But what better way to get through periods of persistent anxiety?
Lewis Cannon
Underrated author Lewis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, but his ex-wife denies he never grew up, given the slightest chance.
