Catastrophe can restore the practical agency that normal conditions obstruct

Evidence

It is only the other side of the same coin that, with the current way of the world, situations may arise today or tomorrow which, while they are very likely to be catastrophic, at the same time restore the possibility of practical action which is today obstructed. As long as the world remains antagonistic and itself perpetuates contradictions, the possibility of changing it will be a legacy. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2395

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The idea that a coming catastrophe paradoxically reopens the possibility of transformative action is a strong premise for dystopian or speculative fiction about a crisis that liberates rather than merely destroys.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2395
• XREF: connects to: Crises create exceptional possibilities by suspending normal rules of conduct. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 760; Crises are formal phases that temporarily suspend normal premises of conduct; Some postwar thinkers hoped catastrophe would transform human life for good — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 764

Broader Connections

• Crises create exceptional possibilities by suspending normal rules of conduct. #expands (0.85) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 760
• Crises are formal phases that temporarily suspend normal premises of conduct #expands (0.82)
• Some postwar thinkers hoped catastrophe would transform human life for good #corroborates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 764