From a recent article in the Guardian - We are living in a time of polycrisis. If you feel trapped – you’re not alone

( I so hope this could be the outcome of this challenging time.)

Dr Daniel Knight, an anthropologist at the University of St Andrews …

is working on a book on Europe from 1644 to 1660, a time of great strife: the Great Plague, an economic crisis, the burning of Constantinople and London, fears of a new ice age, and a religious crisis in England. The end result of this turmoil was, as Knight said, “a more democratic form of governance and decentralized power, a spreading out of economic risk, and improved sanitation”.

Importantly, Europeans learned to listen to their experts, and funneled more resources into their new universities to support science and the humanities. In sum, the polycrisis of the 1600s gave birth to the Enlightenment.