2016 Has Been Awful, But What Are We Going to Do About it?

As it draws to a close, there has been a lot of talk about what a horrendous year 2016 has been. Indeed, it has seemed particularly awful: a continuous bombardment of worst case scenarios, and it’s shown no hope of letting up going into 2017. I doubt that I need to go into any ‘highlights’ (most of us are cripplingly aware of the trials the last few months have brought) and most of us are far too tired and weary to keep dragging up old ghosts and reminding ourselves of how badly things are going. But perhaps this is part of the problem.

For a while now, the human race has been ‘developing’. Empires have risen and fallen; we’ve formed vast and cultivated civilisations; we’ve fought wars; we’ve made peace (at intervals); medicine and science have seen boundless growth and improvement… yet here we are. We should technically be at the most advanced position we have ever been, scientifically, culturally and without a doubt morally. Surely good common sense and basic humanity would be, at this point and after so many years, the kind of thing we’d take for granted? Why isn’t society like the old ‘Star Trek’ yet ? We (‘we’ is important here, this is a collective responsibility) seem to be slipping, or at least taking steps forward only to fall right back again. Either way, progress isn’t what it should be. And yes, I accept, there are many counter-arguments that could be made here. Not least among them the fact that 2016 hasn’t really been that bad at all, and I should like to think that perhaps it hasn’t, that maybe I (and one or two of those around me) are simply suffering from getting older and noticing the more horrible stuff more regularly than the good.

It has been difficult to see quite so many appalling things happen, to see the lack of warmth from so many, to see the absence of desire to learn. I have found myself cheered by the discovery of ‘good people’; I’m getting better at spotting them in a crowd, at having my faith in humanity once more restored, only to then be immediately thrown back to the curb by the very thing that lifted me, as I have to yet again come to terms with the fact this is a minority (?). Nonetheless, my sphere is a relatively small one, and there is a good chance (is there?) that this world view will see something of an improvement.

But to return somewhat to the point, I don’t feel as though this is exclusive to myself or any small number of people. It’s our attitude of just wanting to forget, the tendency to bury our head in the sand, or the feeling that it’s all simply too horrible, that has gotten us here in the first place. The need for growth, to learn – to change –  is something that could no doubt be valuable over the next few months, but we need to remember exactly how terrible a year it was so that we don’t make the same mistakes twice. (I won’t hold my breath though, people have been doing that for centuries.) Anyway, here’s to next year being not quite as bad (touch wood) and to some prevalence of human goodness.