People don't usually have great things to say about The World Today. For me, a lowly student, I get just about every biased take on modern society possible. I get the drawl of the salespeople convincing me they can see into the future better than everyone else. I get the sneer of my elders telling me that society is in decline. I get the pseudo-anarchist teenagers who think they understand the problem with 'The System'. I get the frank explanation from my teachers that humanity is a bleak mass of peoples with no future. I get the tabloid press, who tell me how not to live my life. I get the glossy weeklies who tell me how everyone else is living theirs. I get the prime minister, who tells me that Things need to be done. And I get the terrorists. Who tell me they don't like me much.
To be quite honest, it's a bit of a mess isn't it? It's a bloody downright shambles! If all of these people were right then the world would have imploded right now under the weight of its own depression. But, it seems, humanity has begun to believe its own hype. There isn't much of an incentive for believing in a happy ending any more, and your neighbour seems equally likely to slash your tyres as to love you. The masses are revolting! The monarchy is a shambles! The government is corrupt, and our armies are ineffective! Our industry is being sold out to foreign nations, and our Fair Land inhabited with illegal immigrants! And who is to blame in all this?
I think now, at this sort of lull that you get between wars and elections, humankind needs a few minutes to eat some orange quarters and have a team huddle. Humanity needs to get its act together. That skilful play, those artful team efforts that brought real progress to the world - where was that in the last five years, when we needed it most. Where was the temperance, the prudence, the courage? Are you going to sit back and wait for society to decay? Because let me tell you right now that the only thing that's going to cause a decline in the way we live is if people sit back and wait for one to come along. Because if you wait, I can guarantee you one will come along soon enough.
We need to start moving. As a nation. As a species. As a planet. I don't want to suggest where we might go. I don't want to write a small dissertation in the vain hope that some representative of the United Nations might pick this up somehow. All I really want to do is share something with you that made me think these things, something that made me realise that maybe, just maybe, society might stand a chance in the world of tomorrow.
Snow is a rare blessing in these parts, and though the scaremongers might suggest that global warming will lead to many more 'blessings' in the future, I still cherish the light, crisp dusting of ice that fell glistening through the air as I made my way home today. There was something poetically unplanned about the way is danced and twirled through the air before dissolving into a white wisp of wind as it neared the floor.
It was snow unlike I had ever seen before. Having lived in the UK all my life, this is not a difficult thing I must admit, but this was heavy snow for me and judging by the look on the faces of those who passed me I could tell it was heavy by their standards too.
The woman who is the source of this article was walking towards me at the other end of the road. Plodding. There was nothing remarkable about the woman, she was just another old lady, another OAP making her way home, or to a shop, a school, a workplace. It didn't really matter. We were both travelling, forced to go on foot through the veil of dusty ice. I took no notice of her, really. Everyone was just as absorbed in their own journeys as I was.
But as she passed me, my eyes flickered up and we smiled at each other for a split second. She was many, many decades older than me, but other than that I could tell nothing of where she was from. I do not know her name. I do not know where she lives. I don't know whether she perfers cats or dogs. The only thing I know, and the only thing that matters, is that for that split second we shared a common experience.
She did not know what I was thinking. I did not know what she was thinking. But we were both out there, in this snow unlike anything we had experienced for some time (if at all). There was no reason for any communication, but as I walked on past her I was struck by this sensation that I had not communicated with her because she was a relative, or because she was a friend, or because she was white, or a woman, or middle-class, or English. I had smiled at her because she was human, and so was I. And so, it didn't matter what else we shared. The common trait of being human was all that was needed.
Being human. That is what we all share. That is what binds us, and what will continue to bind us, for the rest of eternity. And that, ladies and gentlemen, that is why my faith in humanity will never be shaken.
Albert Einstein was a solemn human, and a reflective one. He said,
"We cannot despair of humanity, because we ourselves are human beings."
And at the end of the day, come utopia or anarchy, we will all be bound irrevocably by the tie of being human.
What it is to be human, however, is a story for another time.
