We are constantly in crisis. If you turn on the TV, the radio, your cell phone, or go down to the street to talk to the world's most astute analyst in the bar who's finishing their drink, the world is in crisis.
When I was little, I learned what the word "crisis" meant by looking it up on the big, dirty beige PC my parents gave me after it had been used to death: "A serious phase in a development (events, ideas)." This is the general definition, the one we use in everyday life, and the one that's frightening. I emphasize the word "serious," which, in our collective unconscious, suggests an intense, sometimes even ominous, heaviness. This somber character is supported by the medical definition of a crisis: "A violent manifestation of a morbid condition, occurring in the absence of apparent health. (Example: an epileptic seizure)."
As a child, my sense of seriousness was extremely limited, since the rare times I was scolded were when I fell asleep, my head stuck in the stair railing, at night, watching the TV my parents had turned on downstairs. Thus, almost nothing in my life was serious.
However, as I grew up, I heard this word, which I considered truly rare, many times, not episodically (as its definition suggests), but constantly and linearly. This paradox sparked a line of reasoning that has stayed with me ever since.
It was the first time I realized that we don't see the world as it is, but first and foremost an image we create of it. The notion of gravity is entirely subjective, and someone who declares the world to be in crisis will find a thousand and one reasons to justify its existence. This is without even considering all the biases that distort the very notion of such a thing. Indeed, how many people use this term for manipulative purposes, to gain influence over others? How many proclaim the crisis as a mere projection of their own inner state? So, after meticulous internal scrutiny, I can assure you that there is not a trace of manipulative intent or projection, but rather an observation reached after careful reflection and shared by friends whose discernment I greatly admire.
Today, there is a crisis, not to say a breakdown, of the Imagination.