In late March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the world into lockdown just as the proofs of this book landed on our desks. We immediately wondered, as the pandemic began to unfold, if what we had to say was still of relevance. We are convinced that it is. The key themes of this book are that any society encountering patched-up macroeconomic crashes (like 2008), the ever-increasing daily stressors of an aging society beset with rapid technological change, and rising inequality, was one that would produce an angry anti-system politics. That public anger would manifest itself in legitimate moral outrage and the weaponized energy of tribes. Not only is that still true, it is especially relevant in the current moment.

It may seem that the pandemic has quietened the anger, simply by everyone being told to stay indoors. Even the US presidential campaign seems to have been put on hold. Indeed, opinion polls have found renewed faith in centre parties and in the opinions of (health) experts. Meanwhile, those denying the pandemic or weaponizing it for politics seem to be losing their standing. So far, so good. But given that the underlying stressors we’ve discussed in this book are still there we need to consider how they interact with the actions taken to halt the pandemic. Indeed, with unemployment rocketing up everywhere, that anger, under lockdown for the moment, is likely to come back with some new targets as a result of this crisis.

An early example of this was the anger of Bernie supporters in the US asking why the Federal Reserve can always find a few trillion dollars to support financial markets whenever it's needed, but their asks, for student debt forgiveness and universal healthcare, are always “unaffordable”. Class advantage is in full display in the pandemic as seen in who gets a Covid test, where you can decamp to avoid the virus (Devon in the UK and the Hamptons in the US), and who can work remotely to maintain an income and who cannot. As we move forward under lockdown the wisdom of the immigration restrictions popular with populists will be tested as much needed food for cities lies unpicked in the fields due to a lack of immigrant labour combining with the lockdown.