World In Polycrisis

These are tumultuous times we are living in. Turn on the news and you are blasted with news of war, terrorism, and humanitarian crises, among others. While some nations are slipping into civil war, others are facing sluggish growth and a rise in the cost of living. Even Nepal has seen political turmoil and uprising. 2025 was a year of Gen Z protests and the overthrow of the KP Sharma Oli-led government. The image of historic buildings in flames will take a while to be removed from the conscience of Nepalis, whether at home or abroad. 

It is thus a difficult time nationally and internationally. One could say the world is facing a polycrisis. The Guardian recently posted about the polycrisis in its social media and it really resonated with the readers. The post read, “We are living in a time of polycrisis…People are overwhelmed, overstimulated and bombarded with bad news each day. This makes it more difficult to keep going.” Not even those who don’t doomscroll are exempt from the feeling of exasperation, confusion and disillusionment. 

Mental health problems are skyrocketing and it is the youths who are feeling the shock of lost dreams, hopes and ambitions. Even in Western nations, young generations are falling back on the support of their parents to survive. The main question in the minds of many is whether things will get better or worsen even more?

The global political and economic instability feels particularly alarming these days as violence, frustration and injustice are on the rise, all of which compound to what social scientists term as polycrisis. Gone are the times when things seemed predictable. You went to school, graduated from college, got a job, worked hard and your financial independence was secured. But these trajectories just do not work anymore.  

The unemployment rates are high while living expenses continue to rise. No longer are entry-level jobs available; they have been snatched by AI (Artificial Intelligence). Even if you are lucky to have a job, it is becoming increasingly insufficient to sustain a comfortable and well-off lifestyle. And sadly, the economic divide between the rich and the poor continues to increase. It is not surprising that Nepali youths took to the streets to topple a corrupt system last September. 

This is a pattern in the global scenario; youths worldwide are quite frustrated, economically and socially, driven by spiritual deprivation. They are increasingly taking to protests that turn violent. Many are also being radicalised. Tuning in to the news is quite disheartening as we are at the mercy of the whims of politicians. Is there any silver lining in the clouds then? According to The Guardian post, we shouldn’t stop planning for the future even if the present feels hopeless. The gist of the post was that if you feel overwhelmed and overstimulated, you are not alone. 

We have to consistently keep up values significant to us and plan and build a future around them. Polycrisis leads to uncertainty, which human minds find difficult to interpret. And the uncertainty of the future makes it difficult to live optimistically in the present. As humans, we have the imaginative ability to envision the future but in the current times, fear-mongering is rife. However, let’s keep in mind that the darker the night, the brighter the stars.