01/01/2025
Sitting down to compose a hopeful message for 2025 is a tough ask given the year we’ve just had. Even glib sentiments are hard to come by. The defeat of pro-democracy forces in the US presidential election still weighs like a heavy anchor on my attempts to move on. Couple that with my growing disillusionment at the seemingly doctrinaire lack of compassion shown by the incoming Labour government in the UK and perhaps I can be forgiven for feeling pessimistic about the prospects for the coming year.
The news is a daily litany of depressing dispatches from around the world: the ongoing genocide in Gaza; the meat-grinder battlefields of Ukraine; The r**e of Gisele Pelicot; the rise of the far right; the climate crisis; the shadow cast by Trump’s presidency; the juvenile cruelties of Elon Musk. The cumulative weight of these developments is enough to make anyone question their faith in humanity.
To add to our sense of disorientation, the notion of an inclusive society based on universal rights feels constantly under attack. Those who have long wished to reverse the tide of progressive reform are poisoning the discourse by promoting mistrust and division. Scare stories of ‘the woke mind virus’ are deployed to marginalise those who believe that respect should be extended to the most vulnerable in society. And empathy is demonised on a daily basis.
Those of us who hold progressive ideals have always understood that we live in an unjust world. It’s what fires us up, what drives our activism. But lately, the injustice has seemed overwhelming. The urge to reach for our comfort blanket is understandable. We deserve a break from the constant doom scrolling. But we must guard against letting our disappointments curdle into cynicism, allowing an understandable need for some respite turn into a sullen mood of resignation.
For I’ve always considered the cynic to be someone who has given up on humanity, wallowing in their despondency to the extent that they think the worst of everyone. Cynicism is an impulsive urge to kick everything down, a resentful rage that drove the vote for Brexit and put Trump back in the White House. And for those of us who wish to create a fairer society, cynicism is the antithesis of the empathy that is crucial to such an endeavour.
So by all means, take a break from the struggle. Spend some time recharging your batteries. But don’t succumb to the idea that nothing will ever change, that no one gives a s**t anymore and resistance is futile. We all have days when we feel that way, but cynicism is a cancer on the body politic and my new years resolution is to do everything I can to curb its pernicious influence on my reasoning.
Happy New Year.
