This book attempts to synthesize the multiple and largely contradictory components of the current historical process. It is a product of the circumstances, yet it does not focus solely on them. It is a text about politics, but it is not a straightforward political text. It is inspired by specific situations, yet remains abstract and, at first glance, distanced.

In seeking the broad lines and functions that affect the course of the world, the text deals with the impasse. In the perhaps ultimate irony of modern civilization and the Enlightenment, the artful concealment of real powers behind impenetrable veils of opacity is revealed. An evolving authoritative system is created that does not need to produce prophecies, nor to speak, nor to evaluate or rationalize.

This "system" appears to be threatened neither by dissenters nor deterred by its internal contradictions. The title of the book refers to the faceless and invisible Leviathan, which operates like an automatic, well-tuned "machine." In this "machine," desires or pursuits are not needed. It exists to engrave the command "honor your superiors" into the "subjugated," who are oppressed by a post-human power devoid of values or a source of legitimacy.

The collapse is not a momentary act, but a fundamental pause, an organized decay. Despite the absence of hope for people, hope remains infinite, even if it can now only be offered for the sake of the desperate.

Konstantinos Tsoukalas was born in Athens in 1937. He is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Athens and has served as a professor at many renowned universities. He has been recognized for his contributions to sociology and political science and has held many significant positions within the academic and political community.

Cover artwork: Ivan Kliun, Diagonals in Space, 1922-23, watercolor and chalk on paper glued to cardboard.