WHAT IS CRISIS?

What is a crisis? We often hear this word. Economic crisis, international crisis, identity crisis,
existential crisis, and so on. I am interested in crises when they are experienced by a whole society.
But what does it mean?
The word crisis has its roots in ancient Greece. There it described a time where a decision must be
made. It was both the decisive moment and the act of deciding itself.
When we are hit with a crisis, we are forced to act. Something changes that means things cannot
continue how they have been. Time has changed, and the future will be radically different from the
past.
But as the Greeks knew well, a crisis is not a smooth transition, nor is it necessarily a catastrophe. It
is not the end. Rather, it demands a choice.
Therefore, when people describe a situation as a crisis, they are not only making a judgement about
the past, but usually implying some direction for the future. This is never neutral.
For example. When Karl Marx wrote Capital, he set out to scientifically analyse the entire capitalist
system. Marx describes how the capitalist system, by its own inner logic, that he had uncovered,
would find it's self falling into repeated states of crisis, which could only increase in severity.
There was nothing the capitalist class could do about this. It was their fate.
The future, instead, for Marx was in the workers hands. They could rise up and replace the capitalist
present with a socialist tomorrow. Or they could watch the economic system destroy itself.
The question is, though, had Marx not been a communist, would he have uncovered a system bound
for crisis, or would he have seen a well oiled machine like others of his time did?
How neutral can we be when we are talking about our society at all? And is it even desirable to
leave our prejudices at the door? Maybe some insights require them.