By Sheldon Greaves

There are moments, and then there are moments. Dickensian “best of times, worst of times” junctures when you can feel in your bones that the future is going to be significantly different from what was. The ancient Greeks had a word for this particular, special moment when everything changes: Kairos.

Kairos (καιρός) was different from regular, empirical time or chronos (Χρόνος). Kairos time is a moment that happens on its own. You can’t call it into existence. No amount of expenditure can replicate it. You can’t predict it, or predict what will come of it. But certain acts or forces that formerly had one result (or no result) suddenly exert tremendous influence on the world. They radically change things. Kairos is tumescent with opportunity. Ideas or strategies that were ineffective before now lead to unimaginable achievements–or consequences. Kairos is not always kind. Sometimes it’s dangerous.

Moments typical of kairos can be foreseen up to a point. A perceptive observer can see them coming, but predicting when it happens is all but impossible. When it does happen, it happens fast. Those who prosper at such moments are the ones who know an opportunity when they see one, and know how to ride it.

Modern Kairos

We’ve seen a few examples of kairos in the last few years. I’m thinking of the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting followed, as usual, by calls for tighter gun control, protests, and the inane, predictable calls for thoughts and prayers from gun lobby supporters. The Parkland kids rose up in protest, as so many others had done before with little effect. But this time, the NRA took a profound thrashing in the public forum. They found themselves facing a (richly deserved) existential crisis from which they still have not recovered.

I also like to think of the 1960s and early 70s as a kairos moment. There was a strong persistent feeling that a new age was upon us; the Solar Age, the Age of Aquarius, whatever one chose to call it, it was a time when things changed suddenly and profoundly.

Today, we think of kairos as a form of emergence. A phenomenon in which a system exhibits behavior that can’t be explained by any act or set of acts. Some video inexplicably going viral on the Internet is a good example of emergence. So is a sudden market crash, usually “explained” in hindsight, but not really predictable beforehand.

Seizing the Moment

The protests of the last few weeks are a perfect example of kairos. COVID continues to ravage the country and the world, even as some places try to return to normalcy. The systematic dismantling of our government and its institutions has reached the point where more people are wondering what America will be like after the November election, or even if America will survive that long. Others are relishing the possibility of apocalypse that will send their enemies to oblivion.

We are also, officially, weathering a recession that probably started in February. More on that next week. Add to that a nastier-than-usual hurricane season predicted for this year, a wildfire season, ditto, and about all we’re missing at this point is a cameo appearance by Godzilla.

Even Trump’s astonishing ability to survive his own misbehavior and that of everyone in his immediate circle is starting to fail. There is a growing sense that we have reached a tipping point; as opposition swells, Trump’s regime is showing unmistakable signs of decline. More and more people are starting to ask, openly, whether Trump will step aside should he lose the election.

What’s Next?

No one knows how this will all play out, or what the end result will be. Those who claim to know almost certainly do not. We are all in this, like it or not. A lot of things are about to be torn down and broken up. But when the world in pieces, that’s also the best time to dismiss reality, face up to our dreams, and build something better.

The next opportunity may not come for a while.