At a time when only people who lack an instinct for self-preservation are saying “things are turning around,” there is at least one industry that appears to have the future to itself: eschatologists and doomsday prophets. 

The utopists who have led a languishing life over the last few decades – and who at their peak cobbled together something aspiring about the need for more women in the boardroom – have recently had a wind in their sails that has not been this strong since about 1970. The future, which neoliberals had apparently staked their claim to in the 1990s, with dreams of eternal growth and capitalism’s ultimate victory in the world, has suddenly turned out to be completely open. And in this situation, it seems inevitable that people are once again beginning to look toward the ends of the spectrum, toward the extreme. 

On the left, revolutionary romantics are sensing new opportunities, which will be expressed not just i...