29 October

So...what’s the difference between disagreement, and having actual enemies? One of the things that shocks people I think about terrorism, Trump, Brexit, and climate change, is that there is suddenly no common ground. These aren’t disagreements, this is a return to different points of view being actual enemies of each other. I think that’s a problem of our own making. We got so passionate about ‘peace’ that we forgot to respect the fact that sometimes people just aren’t like us. It’s not just a disagreement, it’s fundamentally different worldviews. The only solution to that is diplomacy, not peace. Too much peace has brought what looks like chaos today, but is really those differences re-asserting themselves, I think. They never went away, we just got rich and arrogant and stopped negotiating. We assumed our way was the best way, and it was just a matter of tidying everybody else up.