Los Angeles | In-Person

Why Is the Modern World So Angry?

Pankaj Mishra

Photo courtesy of Pankaj Mishra.

LOCATION:
National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
111 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Paid parking is available at the Little Tokyo Mall Public Parking Lot (318 E. First St.) Enter from San Pedro Street. Additional paid parking is available at the Japanese Village Plaza Parking Lot (356 E First St.) and the Office Depot Plaza Parking Lot (401 Alameda St).
A Zócalo/Japanese American National Museum Event
Moderated by Gregory Rodriguez, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Zócalo Public Square

American mass shooters. Islamic terrorists. Vengeful nationalists. Racist presidents. Social media misogynists. In today’s world, paranoid hatred—and the wrath of the people who spread it—is inescapable. Where does all the rage come from? Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger: A History of the Present, locates the answer, paradoxically, in modernity’s successes. As the world has become more closely linked via mass politics and technology and the pursuit of wealth, those unable to enjoy the fruits of progress have been cast adrift, uprooted from older traditions. Many have responded by lashing out at elites, by inventing enemies, attempting to recreate an imaginary golden age, and seeking self-empowerment through apocalyptic rhetoric and spectacular violence. What is the attraction of cultural supremacism and rancorous brutality in this age? What does the history of previous transitions in global politics and technology tell us about how to manage the backlash? And what does this moment require—in terms of new thinking—if humanity is to survive its own anger? Mishra visits Zócalo to explore the paradoxical perils of freedom, stability, and prosperity.

LOCATION:
National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
111 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Paid parking is available at the Little Tokyo Mall Public Parking Lot (318 E. First St.) Enter from San Pedro Street. Additional paid parking is available at the Japanese Village Plaza Parking Lot (356 E First St.) and the Office Depot Plaza Parking Lot (401 Alameda St).

The Takeaway

It’s a Mad, Mad World—but Another Utopia Isn’t the Answer

People Are Fed Up With Modernity’s False Promises, Says Author Pankaj Mishra, and It’s Time for a New Experiment

The writer Pankaj Mishra has a name for an era in which frustrated young men commit savage acts of violence, society is starkly split into economic winners and losers, and …