turn the world on its head

To cause the established order of society to become dramatically altered, distorted, or suspended. The advent of the Internet turned the world on its head, changing nearly every single aspect of human interactivity. In the year 2020, a global pandemic turned the world on its head, changing how nearly every person on the planet lived their life. Her latest novel turns the world on its head, imagining a society in which criminal gangs are in total control and traditional governments are a thing of the past.