In the late Soviet Union, everyone knew the system was failing. The government knew it. The people knew it. Yet, they all continued as if nothing was wrong. This paradox, first identified by anthropologist Alexei Yurchak, was called HyperNormalisation—a situation where a collapsing reality is kept alive through collective pretense. When filmmaker Adam Curtis applied this idea to the modern world, he argued that Western governments and financial elites have created an artificial, simplified reality to manage the complexity of an unraveling world.
Today, this phenomenon is playing out on a massive scale. Figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump have become the architects of an increasingly fragmented and performative reality, offering grand, simplistic solutions to deeply complex systemic failures. Musk presents himself as a techno-visionary, pushing narratives of interplanetary colonization, AI-driven abundance, and hyper-efficient autonomous systems, while Trump peddles nationalism, economic protectionism, and an idealized return to past greatness. Both figures exemplify the logic of denial and redirection, diverting public attention away from the polycrisis we are in and toward a manufactured belief in radical, yet ultimately superficial, solutions.
Musk, in particular, does not just adapt to the HyperNormalisation paradigm—he actively shapes it, positioning himself as both a savior and disruptor. By framing his ventures—Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink—as solutions to humanity's existential threats, he fosters a belief in progress while consolidating economic and technological power within privatized, centralized structures. His Mars colonization dream, for example, is marketed as a safeguard against planetary collapse, yet it does nothing to address the actual causes of environmental degradation on Earth. It offers escape, not progress. Similarly, AI advancements promise efficiency and economic growth, but under Musk's influence, they also further entrench elite control over information, automation, and economic productivity.
Trump's approach is a different, but equally potent, mechanism of distraction. Rather than acknowledging the inherent instability of globalized finance, climate change, and shifting power dynamics, his rhetoric leans into a return to imagined stability. His strategies—economic isolationism, populist nationalism, and the vilification of external threats—offer the illusion that the systemic unraveling we are witnessing is merely a problem of bad leadership, weak governance, or external sabotage. This type of narrative allows millions to believe that stability is just a few political victories away, rather than understanding that the structures themselves are unsustainable.
The critical similarity between Musk and Trump is that both function as narrative engineers, constructing mythologies that deny systemic failure while amplifying their own power. Whether through the techno-utopianism of Musk or the nostalgic populism of Trump, the public is sold the idea that complex, entangled crises have simple, bold solutions—if only we follow the right leader.
But what happens when that illusion collapses? What happens when the crises that were once managed by perception alone become too real to ignore? This is where we find ourselves today, at the confluence of overlapping global disruptions—economic fragility, ecological catastrophe, political dysfunction, technological upheaval. This is the Polycrisis, an era where multiple crises reinforce and accelerate each other, making traditional solutions obsolete.
In the face of such uncertainty, two paths emerge. One is to cling to the illusion, pretending that minor adjustments will restore stability. The other is to embrace a radically different paradigm—one that acknowledges the exhaustion of old models and seeks to cultivate something entirely new. This is where the idea of Heliogenesis enters the conversation.
A World Held Together by Fiction
For decades, we have lived in a world governed by narratives rather than realities. Markets operate on the assumption of infinite growth, even as the planet's resources dwindle. Governments make promises they cannot fulfill, their authority propped up by media spectacle rather than meaningful action. Digital platforms offer us the illusion of connection while driving deeper social fragmentation. The more fragile these systems become, the more their architects rely on controlling perception rather than addressing root causes.
HyperNormalisation is not just the work of elites; it is the result of a deep cognitive entanglement. We create stories because they are more manageable than chaos. But reality resists narrative control. When systems begin to fail, when entire ways of life are revealed as unsustainable, the cracks widen. This is the Polycrisis, where financial collapse, climate breakdown, mass displacement, and technological disruption create feedback loops of instability.
We are witnessing an existential meaning crisis—a collapse not just of institutions, but of the shared stories that once held civilization together. The response so far has been reactionary: nostalgic nationalism, corporate greenwashing, techno-solutionism. None of these approaches address the core issue—the fact that the world we built is fundamentally misaligned with the forces shaping the future.
The Energy Paradox and the Limits of the Old World
The Polycrisis is, at its core, an energy crisis. Every civilization is shaped by its ability to harness energy. Fossil fuels gave birth to modern industrial society, but they also created the conditions for ecological collapse. Renewable energy promises a cleaner alternative, but our infrastructure remains trapped in a scarcity-based model, optimized for centralized control rather than distributed abundance.
We are not just facing an energy crisis in terms of fuel and electricity; we are facing a civilizational exhaustion. The foundations of modernity—economic growth, mass production, global trade—are all predicated on an energy surplus that is no longer guaranteed. The geopolitical tensions over resources, the increasing frequency of blackouts and shortages, and the inflationary pressure on energy-intensive industries all point to an era where the assumptions of the past no longer hold.
The old world was built on the logic of extraction—taking from the earth, from people, from the future. The next civilization must be built on the logic of regeneration. Heliogenesis means more than solar energy; it means designing a system that generates more than it consumes, that replenishes rather than depletes. It is a fundamental reorientation towards abundance rather than scarcity.
Imagine an economy where energy is no longer a geopolitical weapon, but a freely available resource. Where AI is not programmed to extract data for profit, but to optimize human well-being. Where self-sustaining communities emerge, no longer dependent on fragile global supply chains. This is not an idealistic vision—it is the logical next step if we are willing to abandon the systems that are now visibly failing.
The Collapse of the Spectacle
One of the most dangerous illusions of HyperNormalisation is the belief that someone is in control. That behind the scenes, politicians, technocrats, or AI systems are managing the crisis. In reality, the system is adrift. The complexity of the modern world has exceeded the ability of any single entity to govern it effectively.
The collapse of old institutions will not be announced. It will happen quietly, then all at once. A financial system suddenly ceases to function. A major city becomes uninhabitable due to climate change. Supply chains fail in a way that cannot be patched with temporary measures. The illusion of control will shatter, and what remains will be raw, unmediated reality.
This moment will be terrifying for those still clinging to the past. But for those prepared, it will be an opportunity. The post-collapse world will not be a wasteland; it will be an open field. The structures of the past will crumble, but new possibilities will emerge in their place. What was once hidden behind the fog of media spectacle will become clear: the real work of building the future is just beginning.
What Comes After: The Age of Heliogenesis
History does not repeat, but it does rhyme. Every civilization reaches a moment when its myths collapse under the weight of their contradictions. Those who see the collapse as the end will cling to outdated ideologies, fighting to preserve systems that no longer serve them. But those who see it as a beginning will shape what comes next.
Heliogenesis is an invitation—to stop playing by the rules of a failing system and start building something different. To rethink energy, technology, governance, and culture from first principles. To reject the scarcity mindset and embrace a world that generates rather than extracts, that nurtures rather than controls.
We are at a civilizational threshold. If HyperNormalisation was the last attempt to hold together an outdated world, and the Polycrisis is the painful unraveling of its contradictions, then Heliogenesis represents the blueprint for what comes after.
A new world is possible, but it will not be handed to us. It must be built—by those willing to see beyond collapse, beyond managed illusions, and into the reality that awaits on the other side.
love,
M
References:
Curtis, A. (2016). HyperNormalisation [Film]. BBC. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation
Yurchak, A. (2005). Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton University Press.
Morin, E. (2007). Restricted Complexity, General Complexity. Worldviews, Science and Us: Philosophy and Complexity. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Morin
Tooze, A. (2022). Understanding the Polycrisis. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/videos/experts-explain-adam-tooze-what-is-the-polycrisis
Centeno, M. A., & Nag, M. (2024). Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms of Crisis Entanglement. Global Sustainability, Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/global-polycrisis-the-causal-mechanisms-of-crisis-entanglement/06F0F8F3B993A221971151E3CB054B5E
Institute of Development Studies. (2023). Are We in the Age of the Polycrisis?. Retrieved from https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/are-we-in-the-age-of-the-polycrisis