Another year clicked over, another year to the count. It somehow doesn’t feel real that we are so far into the 21st century and yet it seems like we’re doing the problems we mostly tackled last century and decided we’d come to a conclusion on those topics, but clearly it isn’t the end of history like it was proposed 30 years ago. No, wait, 35 years ago. I was a damn kid when it seemed like everything was figured out, and yet here we are again, arguing over bullshit that stops us from the important things.
How depressing a start to the year it has been, from a world events and politics point of view. It seems difficult to see how we escape this shit. How does the world turn around to the kinder place we were once upon a time?
It seems likely to take another 20 years, which is not the kind of thing I was hoping for my life, or my kids’ life. We have urgent problems in front of us, most importantly climate change. I struggle regularly to understand why the majority hasn’t been able to be persuaded as to the urgency. Events outpace our human ability to cope, and perhaps that’s why we retreat.
I despair today for our chances. Living from one crisis to the next is no way to live. There has to be a better way, for all our sakes.