A crisis-ridden society is a society that is constantly in the process of consolidation and dissolution.
Some individuals, in the course of a crisis, develop a strong desire for control, a control that is localized to the individual's own sensibility and outlook.
And that desire for control amplifies the desire for control in the other, and vice versa.
And the power that collects around the individual, which serves as the means of control, is power that is taken from the social body, power that is needed for that body to administrate itself.
So the social body is hollowed out, and the society proceeds to a dissolution and the re-concentration of power on the part of those well-placed and well-connected.
The process begins again, and the society ping pongs from one crisis to the next, reorienting around new centers of power until they hollow out the body once again.
Other individuals, in the course of a crisis, discover quite the opposite: that control is unattainable and so there is a letting go, and what power is left can flow to the social body, where it administers itself.
But whether this happens on the social level depends on who is placed where, and what means of control are still accessible to those in power.
