Director’s Notebook #40
The Spoiler Epoch
By Peter J. Hoffman, Director of GPIA
Politics is often defined as the art of the possible, finding pragmatic compromises, but it has also come to mean justifying the impossible, to grind the gears of bargaining into an unbreakable deadlock—we have entered the “Spoiler Epoch.” The attention economy that rewards shock over substance and outrage over understanding has created an incentive structure that favors grievance over governance. The world is afflicted with many truly profound problems, but what looms perhaps the largest is the global inability to confront them with a candor and good faith that calls out inequities and brutalities and signals a sincere willingness to address them. I share the frustrations of those who want real change that alters the global equation of peace and prosperity, that all have a right to an equal share of it. Those repressed, the targeted, and the marginalized have every right to be impatient with a world that has been ungenerous and uncaring. I stand with those who feel revulsion at the global state of affairs, and I am saddened at the world that future generations may inherit if a radical remaking is not in the offing.
A brief survey of contemporary inequalities and crises with skewed impacts is an essential context to our fractured world polity—consider deaths, displacement, and disparities in 2023. Civilian deaths in war soared 122%. Refugees and the forcibly displaced hit a record 114 million and are anticipated to hit 130 million by the end of this year. At the same time, humanitarian funding dropped from $41 billion to $30 billion. All the while, the world’s richest 1% own nearly 60% of global financial assets.
When you reflect on this, how can you not be angry? But what will you do with that anger? What political impulse will you give into? While it’s true that extreme measures are needed to right wrongs, we should not lose sight of the urgent need to forge a path forward. Spoilers would, instead nothing happens because it protects existing benefits, including that which gives them a spotlight despite the price others bear. The current situation of inequality and violence is untenable, but the road to progress of sustainable peace and development will be a dead-end if spoilers have their way.
The Spoiler Epoch has brought humanity to a crossroads. We need to say “no” to authoritarianism, to xenophobia, to militarism, to genocide, to comodification of public goods, to de maldistribution of resources, and to climate denialism. But we also need to say “no” to the performative politics of spoilers—to refute and refuse those who want to use fear and hate to undermine the few chances we have remaining as a species to ensure a livable world with rights and dignity for all.
The journey to build that better world continues at the Graduate Programs in International Affairs daily. This spring will indeed feature some programming that will advance our shared justice agenda—keep an eye out for an announcement of our upcoming Studley Lecture. Below are some other Spring 2024 semester dates to keep in mind:
- Monday, February 19: President’s Day (The New School is closed)
- Monday, March 11-Sunday, March 17: Spring Break
- Tuesday, May 14: GPIA Capstone presentations
- Thursday, May 16: Schools of Public Engagement recognition ceremony
- Friday, May 17: New School Commencement
Looking forward to a productive semester,
PETER J. HOFFMAN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR