In the classical idea of tragedy, the forth-coming disaster is ever present in the here and now, and stems from a general condition that was established in the past. For the Greeks, this tragic condition was tightly woven into the tapestry of destiny, giving it a god-stamped inevitability. Now, very few people would admit to believing in destiny, and yet this tragic idea of future inevitability is a lot more real and even logical than we generally suspect.

If we take the two world wars of the past century as axiomatic examples of modern tragedy, it can easily be historically affirmed that they were the logical outcome of the inevitable clash between great collective systems, albeit impressively high forms of cultures when considered from creative and intellectual standpoints, but also ultimately anti-human and deeply rooted in violent competition with each other. And, despite the twice-tragic outcomes of the anti-human, this basic competitive structure of civilisation was never transcended, leaving the inevitability of the next tragedy perfectly poised.

We no longer have prophets warning us of the inevitable, yet there is a growing sense that the next great tragedy is close. We have the concept of civilisation, and we think we are civilised but how civilised can we be if the same civilisation we have now is the same, or an even worse version of the same civilisation that condemned millions of people to die in two barbaric global conflagrations and threatens an even more effective annihilation of itself in an imminent future scenario.

The closest thing we probably do have to the idea of the prophet is the science fiction writer and whenever, in a sci fi fashion, we imagine the logical development – and increment – of our unfettered, capitalist system of civilisation the result is always a nightmarish dystopia. There is no capitalist paradise beyond that which has already been: the capitalist Utopias of the 50s, 60s and 70s that were held up by more socialist minded welfare states that inevitably collapsed into the brutal dog eats dog environments of Reaganism and Thatcherite, Chicago school of economics liberalisms.

The cultures of nation states are inherently a competitive concept that are destined to vanquish or die. That is the tragic truth of the reality we live in and the transcending question that needs to be asked is: If we are destined to die, can we learn how to go peacefully rather than tragically? Only a vision of a common destiny of unity will ever allow us to transcend the enormous disaster already unfolding.