We are thrilled to begin our 2025 publication with a critical essay by James Cairns. Timely in its content, Dr. Cairns asks us to engage the “worse is better thesis” to rethink how we engage this current moment when authoritarian populism dominates our politics and limits they ways in which we might imagine a better society.
As Dr. Cairns writes in the abstract: “I often hear students say that the reason there’s no mass movement for revolution is that things haven’t gotten bad enough yet. I argue back, explaining why worse doesn’t automatically lead to better. Yet, I must admit, as a political activist, I routinely emphasize the depths of the latest crisis and warn of worse to come. If the path to liberation runs through catastrophe, why do I have such a hard time admitting that? If not, why do we on the Far Left revel in bad news? This essay answers these questions by comparing “the worse, the better” politics as attributed to Lenin with what Lenin actually said and did. I make a case for seeing a crisis as neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but instead as a collection of forces fueling resistance and reaction.”
See the new edition and James’ article on the Journal website