Midnight in the century: When Victor Serge published the book bearing this title in 1939, the year the German-Soviet pact was signed and Poland was dismembered, it was indeed midnight, and an inescapable night was about to darken and last for five years.
Isn't it midnight in our century? Two wars are currently underway. The one in Ukraine has already led to the mobilization of economic and military aid from a large part of the world, with the conflict radicalizing and threatening to spread. Russia has not succeeded in annexing Ukraine, but it is holding on to the previously separatist Russian-speaking regions. The blockade has partially weakened Russia but also stimulated its scientific and technical development, particularly in the military field. The war has already had far-reaching consequences: The South's increasing and variable autonomy from the West and the tightening of the Russia-China bloc.
A new hotbed of war was ignited in the Middle East in the wake of the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, followed by Israel's deadly bombardment of Gaza. This carnage, coupled with acts of persecution in the West Bank and annexationist statements, awakened the dormant Palestinian question. They proved the urgency, necessity and impossibility of decolonizing what remains of Arab Palestine and creating a Palestinian state.
As no pressure is being, or will be, brought to bear on Israel to achieve a two-state solution, we can only assume that this terrible conflict will worsen or even expand. This is one of history's tragic lessons: The descendants of a people persecuted for centuries, first by a Christian and then by a racist West, can become both the persecutors and the West's advanced bastion in the Arab world.
Thought has become blind
These wars aggravate the conjunction of crises afflicting nations, fuelled by the vitriolic antagonism between three empires: the US, Russia and China. These crises are feeding on each other in a kind of environmental, economic, political, social and civilizational polycrisis that is growing in magnitude.
Environmental damage is impacting human societies through urban and rural pollution, aggravated by industrial agriculture. The hegemony of uncontrolled profit (a major cause of the environmental crisis) is increasing inequalities within every nation and across the globe. The qualities of our civilization have deteriorated and its deficiencies have grown, including the development of egoism and the disappearance of traditional solidarity. On every continent, democracy is in crisis: It is increasingly being replaced by authoritarian regimes, which, with their computerized means of control over populations and individuals, are heading toward the creation of submissive societies that could be called neo-totalitarian. Globalization did not create any solidarity, and the United Nations is increasingly disunited.
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