The Shahran oil depot in Tehran, on the night of Saturday, March 7 to Sunday, March 8. (Screenshot X) ---- The veneer of civilization is cracking. From the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to the spiral of events that have upended the geopolitical balance of power in the Middle East since October 7, 2023, and including the skirmishes on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the world is ablaze. Far from being a mere accident, we are experiencing a true historical turning point: international law is giving way to the "age of predators."
When War Becomes Profitable
For decades, we lived under the regime of deterrence. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the nuclear threat made the cost of any large-scale attack prohibitive. Defense prevailed over offense. But as Giuliano da Empoli points out in "The Hour of the Predators," technological evolution has turned the game upside down.
Today, the economic balance of war has collapsed. To shoot down a homemade drone launched from southern Lebanon, Israel sometimes has to deploy a Patriot missile costing three million dollars. When the cost of attack is negligible compared to that of defense, the world becomes an open hunting ground for those who have nothing left to lose and everything to gain.
The Rise of Autocrats and "Conquistadors"
In this devastated landscape, a new political fauna is emerging. The 47th American president has placed himself at the head of a motley crew: unashamed autocrats, tech conquistadors, reactionaries, and conspiracy theorists. For these players, chaos is no longer the weapon of rebels or the oppressed; it has become the hallmark of the dominant class.
In an environment where the legitimacy of power is precarious, inaction is a death sentence, as Da Empoli reminds us. Those who do not act suffer the consequences of change to their disadvantage. Consequently, brutal action becomes the only currency. The independence of institutions, the rights of minorities, or international repercussions? These concepts have become obsolete. In the age of predators, these safeguards have lost all value. This return to a form of political savagery is, according to Da Empoli, nothing more than a brutal historical "return to normal."
The Digital Free-for-All
This predation is not limited to physical battlefields; it saturates the mental space. Public debate has transformed into a free-for-all where the only rules are those dictated by the algorithms of the platforms.
"While the mobilization of prejudices has always been the lifeblood of political struggle, social media has allowed it to take on an industrial dimension: identifying hot topics, the fault lines that divide public opinion; pushing the most extreme positions on each of these fronts and pitting them against each other; projecting the confrontation onto the entire public in order to further inflame the atmosphere." (Da Empoli, 2025, p. 93) The aim is no longer to enlighten minds, but to paralyze them.
The Cult of Results and the End of Reason
In this chaotic world, knowledge has become the enemy of action. To reflect is to slow down; to understand is to hesitate. What matters is the bold decision that captures the public imagination and paralyzes the adversary.
But in concrete terms, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will lead to a surge in the price of oil, which will further impoverish the working classes through widespread inflation. Meanwhile, the chaos is enriching the arms industry, which is massively diverting public resources that should be invested in healthcare, education, and the fight against the climate emergency.
"Only the result matters," as Javier Milei so aptly puts it: "What's the difference between a madman and a genius? Success." (Da Empoli, 2025, p. 82) In the arena of predators, the winner is right, regardless of the wreckage they leave behind.
The world is no longer governed; it devours itself.
Bibliography:
DA EMPOLI, Giuliano. The Hour of the Predators. Paris: Gallimard, 2025.
by Emma Goldman Collective
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2026/03/le-monde-lheure-des-predateurs.html
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Link: (en) Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - The World in the Age of Predators: Chronicle of Organized Chaos (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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