Living in the End Times? An Interview with Dai Jinhua

Abstract

In this excerpt from an interview with OWMagazine, Professor Dai Jinhua of Peking University shared her views and concerns about our current world and our collective future. The conversation started with a look back at the twentieth century, especially with reference to several important figures who passed away recently: Fidel Castro, Chen Yingzhen, John Berger, and Zygmunt Bauman. According to Dai, the era represented by these figures concluded even before their deaths, but how to remember, understand, and evaluate that era still remains a critical question. Dividing the time from the second half of the twentieth century until the present into “Cold War,” “post-Cold War,” and “post-post-Cold War” periods, Dai discussed how the triumph of capitalism has led to the disappearance of an “outside” of it and how the combined impact of global financial capital and the new technological revolution has been drastically changing our modes of life and production, worsening such problems as wealth disparity and solidifying the status hierarchy. In addition to energy crises and environmental disasters, a deserted population structurally created and expanded in this process leads to political problems that threaten the survival and well-being of the human race. The complete text was originally published in the “Sailors of the World” issue of OWMagazine, no. 14 (June 2017).