To be continued... indefinitely. Elena Marchetti is the author of "The Loop of History: Why the 1990s Never Ended" (University of Chicago Press, 2023).

This article dissects as a cultural, political, and existential condition. It is the story of how humanity entered a loop of apocalyptic expectation, and why we are still waiting for the final bar to drop. Part I: The Genesis (1992 – The Year Everything Changed) Why 1992?

But here is the terror of the Ostinato: the only reliable way to break a musical loop is to stop playing. Silence. In historical terms, silence is extinction-level collapse or totalitarian enforced peace.