They have written a pitch-black pamphlet. The insatiable hunger for ever-increasing returns is the root of all evil, they write. According to them, humanity is inevitably going to hell. They predict: Hundreds of thousands of environmental disasters, increasing in impact; hundreds of millions of uprooted people – on a journey without a destination, increasing in number; hundreds of millions of real ‘deplorables’ – nothing to lose, less and less afraid; a reduction in the world population by billions; the extinction of thousands of animal species; revolutions; large flows of migrants; economies that collapse; et cetera.

The downfall is inevitable, they claim. There are no alternatives, nor hopeful suggestions. The people who are alive now will experience the violent beginning of it, and not yet the beginning of an end. That will come after us. After the chaos, a new order will arise, but we do not yet know what that will look like.

The pamphlet by Van de Voort and Paape fits into a wave of books, both from Europe and the US, that are critical of the capitalist system. The difference is that others still believe in alternatives, see for example Rutger Bregman and his moral ambition, https://www.europeanleadershipplatform.com/news-item/moral-ambition/, or philosopher Ben Kuiken about sense-making, https://www.europeanleadershipplatform.com/news-item/making-sense/.