Wrecking Ball explores, in novel theoretical manner, a decalogue of wicked problems that could easily end contemporary civilization. Written in the vernacular of political economy, it demonstrates that without an inclusive centralized system of global political and economic institutions, the collective action required to solve these wicked problems falls beyond the remit of the world’s 200 still predominantly extractive and elitist polities. To prove its manifold theses, Wrecking Ball grounds its analysis in an extended study of contemporary South Africa and shows that this country’s elitist and extractive political and economic institutions not only make resolution of ongoing domestic crises unattainable, but make meaningful responses to wicked problems impossible.