starting as long as a hundred years ago, marxists referred to the contemporary phase - whatever it was at the time - as late capitalism, a lovely expression of wishful thinking. seems like you’d get embarrassed about that as the decades tick by, and i would have suggested a number of other dialiectical phases: “late late capitalism,” “extremely late capitalism”, “unbelievably late late capitalism” and so on.

maybe they got too embarrassed by this approach, though they are not folks who are easily embarassed. so now we’re in “neoliberal capitalism” or perhaps since we’re thirty years past reagan and thatcher, we’re in “late neoliberal capitalism.” well the power of capital and political/miltary systems connected with it just keeps consolidating, shows no sign whatever of disintegrating: quite the reverse. so this is where climate change comes in: it will provide the terminal crisis of capitalism: it is the realization of prophecy. people, i must say, are sitting home wanting it to be as bad and imminent as possible, and asserting - while brooking absolutely no dissent - that it is as bad and imminent as possible. it’s still science, too.