The black armband sportspeople wear now speak volumes to the culture we're living in. An adolescent culture.…

The black armband sportspeople wear now speak volumes to the culture we're living in. An adolescent culture. We can make a huge drama in the moment about bad things that happen, with us as the key players, the centre of attention. /1 https://t.co/ICFT6FmcQ3

What we can no longer do is have a calm, analytical, protracted response to disasters. Like pandemics. It bores us. An armband is great, because again it's about us. Our 15 minutes of attention, the focus is on us more than the tragedy. /2

But having to make sustained, long-term sacrifices, and calmly analyse what's happening and what needs doing? Not a snowball's chance in hell. It's not dramatic enough, not enough about ourselves. Symbolic gestures that last barely a news cycle, that's all. /3

It's why we have institutions, to have an attention span longer than a news or electoral cycle. An attention span crossing generations, decades or even centuries. All being dismantled by populism, by me politics, ephemeral fads and fashions. High school. 4/4