Introduction

Power is the ability to get things done. Politics is the means to get those things done. The fact is that today politics and power have fallen apart in liberal democracy. We know this. We feel this viscerally. And every day brings new evidence that confirms this view. We live with a generalized sense of fear, a feeling that I am not in control and that nothing and no one is in control either. The disaffection with normal politics particularly among the young is vast and something else has taken shape, something at once exciting and frightening. We could be in the early stages of a perfect storm.

Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor at the New School for Social Research. He has authored over a dozen books including the celebrated Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (2007) in which he argues for an ethically committed political anarchism. His recent book is The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology (2012). He has been actively involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park.