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Word of the week: crisis
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Crisis
[ krahy-sis ] Hyperbolic noun
A time of intense danger and instability, which calls for urgent action to prevent total catastrophe.
Historically, economic and political crises have been profound, but infrequent. Nowadays, according to BBC News, there are multiple, never-ending crises taking place, everywhere. There is an obesity crisis, a climate crisis, a political crisis, an extinction crisis, a crisis in trust. ‘Crisis’ used to describe a temporary period of time, now we understand that we are trapped in a never-ending cycle of crises.
In the olden days, when a crisis occurred, people reacted, and the situation was resolved one way or the other. Nowadays, public figures and activists like to create crises in order to raise our awareness of their danger. As the crisis expert, they are also in the best position to safely resolve it, by putting in place their preferred solution.
Use:
“We are reaching the tipping point in the hedgehog crisis – fund my research and ban cars
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