The phrase 'the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters' has become a popular way to describe contemporary global turmoil. Attributed to Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, it has been used by politicians, central bankers, and even in a BBC Reith lecture. However, the quote does not appear in Gramsci's original writings.
In his Prison Notebooks, written while imprisoned by Mussolini's fascist regime, Gramsci actually wrote: 'In questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati.' The standard English translation by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith renders this as 'In this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.' There is no mention of monsters.
The first recorded English use of 'time of monsters' in connection with Gramsci appears in a 2010 New Left Review article by philosopher Slavoj Žižek. When questioned, Žižek could not recall the origin, stating he likely took it from elsewhere. A French version predates this: economist Gustave Massiah wrote 'dans ce clair-obscur surgissent les monstres' in 2003, and Le Monde used a similar phrase in 1996.
Despite the misattribution, Gramsci's ideas remain influential. His concept of hegemony—how ruling classes maintain power through culture and civil society, not just force—continues to resonate. The Prison Notebooks, published posthumously in 1947, have been translated into over 40 languages and remain a key text for understanding political power.
