The noise started with the election of Donald Trump and was certainly building from when he announced his candidacy and then given a push to become audible by Brexit in 2016.

The façade of common decency and the expectation that norms would be observed fell away in earnest when those two events happened.  Other myths were exposed; America as the bastion of freedom and civility, the UK as a stable proponent of respect and democracy and that humanity in the 21st century could withstand the same horrors of the first half of the 20th century and then uphold the intent and desire for peace and equality.

In a way I’m glad that has happened as it is always good to face reality and not have hope in something that is not there.  Better to find hope in knowing what’s there and looking for the ways to change / improve it.

People look to social media and the breakdown of structure in our private lives to explain the change, but really the erosion of humanity has been due to our willingness to allow uber-capitalism, individualism and a distortion of freedom of speech to be become our new moral codes.

The politics of Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s gave rise to the unfettered development of the free-market economy, the rights of the individual over the common good and the explosion of consumerism.  Mass production of short-life goods did away with the expectation of quality and extending the life of goods through repair and good care. It doesn’t seem a stretch to conclude that after 40+ years of this, the same is happening with our relationship with facts and each other.

The legacy of the four years of Trump’s presidency has been the the disruption of political norms within democracy and the unleashing of any or all ‘truths’ because it is the individual’s right to express whatever they want.  This has raised the noise level and led to facts becoming redundant and the right of individuals to be able to carry on consuming goods and pleasure regardless of whatever crisis is going on all important.   Pandemic, war, climate change event or natural disaster, the loudest voices are those that dissent against any action that would stop them from having their latte, buying a new car or generally just having a comfortable life.

Beneath the noise is there still a silent majority?   Is there still the ability of humanity to look at the crises as long-term challenges to resolve not just short-term inconveniences to dodge and skim over?  Is my view of how we should deal with these things irrelevant and outdated?  Is the noise the winner?

The past five years have felt like an intellectual and emotional onslaught that has finally led me to doubt for real that humanity can rally and be resilient like it has proven to for the thousands of years it has existed for.  Writing these thoughts is the challenge to myself to find a middle ground for myself and taken a long-term perspective that things can still change for the better, because they always have before.