Slightly over two months ago, the ‘Brexit’ vote took place, leaving a lot of us in horror, lethargy, or at least confusion. If our confusion has receded as time has gone by, it is because we have become used to this new reality, not because it started making sense.
Today, it is not just the prospect of Britain leaving the EU that haunts the progressive mind. The present is so full of life-rupturing events and stunning evidence of regressing politics, that history seems to be dished up in Olympic proportions. A particular twist to this historical densification is the recent (tentative) declaration of the ‘Anthropocene’ epoch. Its official definition is that people have overtaken nature as the main force that shapes the planet, but a political interpretation might serve better. What if the Anthropocene is actually a systematic violation of the commons, assisted by a fight against common sense? An exploration using the Brexit case.