Terence Corcoran: We seem to be living through an unhinged moment

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomeFP CommentTerence Corcoran: We seem to be living through an unhinged momentThe 'hinge of history' has turned into a time of crazinessLast updated 5 minutes ago This unhinged U.S. president has generated unhinged behaviour around the world, including in Canada. Photo by Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesAll Canadians and most of the world’s power elites are today familiar with the idea that the world is at a “hinge moment” in economic and political history. The leading purveyor of the concept in recent times has been Prime Minister Mark Carney, who reportedly first used the phrase in an April 2025 speech warning that President Donald Trump had created a “hinge moment” for Canada and the world.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountBut Carney did not invent the phrase that is intended to spread the idea that we are living through a precarious time in human history that requires dramatic iconoclastic responses.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. 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Please try againSalman Rushdie, in his 2021 book, “Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020,” pretty much defined the concept.“When one lives at a hinge moment in history, as we do, as Shakespeare did when he wrote his protean plays, a moment when everything is in flux, everything is changing at immense speed, when the future is up for grabs and dark storm clouds rush across the sun, and when there are plagues and dragons loose in the world, then it becomes essential to admit that the old forms will not do, the old ideas will not do, because all must be remade, all, with our best efforts, must be rethought, reimagined, and rewritten.”Before Rushdie published Languages of Truth, BBC commentator Richard Fisher produced a deep look into the question: “Are we living at the ‘hinge of history?’” Fisher raised the hinge issue in response to works by Will MacAskill, an Oxford University philosopher and founder of a religious/philosophy movement called “effective altruism.” In 2019 MacAskill launched an academic debate, first in an online forum, then in a paper, and finally in a New York Times bestseller, “What We Owe the Future,” a 2022 book that only mentions the hinge once but documents the numerous ways human existence is at risk due to human ignorance and malfeasance.Like Rushdie, MacAskill lays out grim scenarios.“We find ourselves living now at a time of extraordinary change. A time marked by the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with thousands of nuclear warheads standing ready to fire. A time when we are burning through our finite fossil fuel reserves, producing pollution that might last hundreds of thousands of years. A time when we can see catastrophes on the horizon — from engineered pathogens to value lock-in to technological stagnation — and can act to prevent them.”Before MacAskill, British philosopher Derek Parfit is credited with creating the hinge idea. “We live during the hinge of history,” he wrote in 2011. A group of Swedish academics recently described Parfit’s hinge of history idea as “a metaphor, a rhetorical device for encouraging people to raise their sights and act with the long-term consequences in mind.” Parfit’s warnings are seen today as the launch pad for a fixation “focused especially on existential risks: human extinction, permanent civilizational collapse and other events which leave some humans living but in a radically reduced form.”This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.According to ChatGPT, there is no evidence that links Carney to MacAskill or Parfit, the inventors of the “hinge” alarm, although MacAskill’s “catastrophes on the horizon” reference somewhat resembles Carney’s 2015 “Tragedy of the Horizon” speech as Bank of England governor in which he proposed corporate action to fight climate change.Beyond the history of the hinge concept, we turn now to its impact on today’s geo-political theatre where we are heading into a new world order built around the hinge theory. Instead of the hinge moment, however, we seem to be transitioning into the land of the unhinged. As defined online by Merriam-Webster, “unhinged” in contemporary usage is synonymous with dozens of descriptive adjectives, many of which could be used to describe the current political environment, i.e., crazed, loopy, crackers, odd, unreasonable, nuts, disordered, delusional, senseless.For example, the world “hinged” is now being deployed by the most unlikely political compatriots. On Wednesday Steve Bannon, radical rightist former adviser to President Trump, joined Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders to call for government control of artificial intelligence. “We have to rise above it. This is a hinge in history,” said Bannon.From AI alarmism to Canada joining the EU, trade wars, headline-grabbing but unproductive investment summits, ruptures, to Trumpism and anti-Trumpism, the only description that truly fits today’s policy world is unhinged. That today’s political battle over AI is unhinged is beyond doubt. Daily media reports, blogs, activists and politicians routinely raise AI-driven “human extinction.”Unhinged AI declarations follow the half-century of alarmism over climate change. Predictions of climate doom stretch back to the 1970s and continue to rattle the world’s population today.The constant portrayal of Donald Trump as unhinged is unquestionably accurate as he continues to overthrow America’s internal and external reputation and freedom principles. From trade to wars to U.S. democracy itself, Trump meets all the dictionary synonyms.What is missing, however, is acknowledgement that this unhinged U.S. president has generated unhinged behaviour around the world, including in Canada.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. 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