Crisis 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “crisis” today. What exactly constitutes a crisis in your mind? I have helpfully provided a few definitions from dictionary.com. See below:

cri-sis
noun

1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, esp. for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.

2. a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.

3. a dramatic or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life.

4. the point in a play or story at which hostile elements are most tensely opposed to each other.

So, based on the above definitions, a crisis is when a person’s future, or a country’s future, or an organization’s future, or even socio-economic futures are inevitably going to be changed. I suppose many of us may not realize that we’re in the midst of a crisis until we’ve actually come out on the other side. Or perhaps some people just don’t want to admit that they or their surroundings are in crisis-mode because they are afraid of panicking others. But based on these definitions, there really doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for debate, right? A crisis is any situation that is going to result in a big change. And change is scary. Is that why the idea of a crisis is ultimately the idea of trouble?

Crisis = Change = Trouble?