Is the decline of the West irreversible?
An extinction burst occurs when bad behaviour intensifies before stopping. Undesirable qualities can become entrenched through positive reinforcement. But if the world changes and no longer provides us with the same feedback, we lose our minds: to the privileged, equality feels like persecution. Extinction bursts are forms of active denial; refusals to accept the past as gone, and desperate attempts to preserve the potential of an impossible reality. Today, modernity’s worst tendencies return intensified: patriarchy, racism, plutocracy, colonialism, exploitation, rentierism, genocide. Even attempts at redemption, restoration and stasis accelerate the decline.
We interview YANCEY STRICKLER on creating alternative realities. RICHARD WENTWORTH walks and sends postcards. WENDY BROWN prefaces a new translation of Marx’s Capital. NOAM CHOMSKY is in conversation with RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. FRANCIS FUKUYAMA is in conversation with JACK SELF, who reviews Bin Laden and the creative millennial. MADDY WEAVERS cancels out noise. OLUWATOBILOBA AJAYI reviews black satire, while NEO-METABOLISM reviews The Limits to Growth. NOAH GOTLIB watches the American dream crumble. MAX CREASY documents the last disposable vape, while TANJA ENGLEBERTS captures oil at sea. SARAH OWEN and ROSE THEODORA read the stars. STEPHANIE SHERMAN, LUKÁŠ LIKAVČAN and RACHEL PEARL don spacesuits on Earth, while the OFFICE OF APPLIED STRATEGY wears corporate merch. SOPHIA SHEPPARD frees herself as an adult, plus much more.
Real Review is a contemporary culture magazine. Through engaging analysis, evaluation and enquiry, the Real Review pursues what it means to live today. Each issue tracks our ever-changing zeitgeist through a current mood. Using the review format, Real Review explores power relations through a close analysis of the material world. Real Review is a perpetual attempt at describing reality as it might actually exist, and reality as we experience it. Real Review is dedicated to the promotion of democracy, inclusivity and equalities of many kinds. It is a non-commercial publication and contains no advertising. It is funded by sales and its Members, and is editorially independent.
