What can we do about the state we're in?

• What do you want to be left alone to do?

• What do you want to be provided for you?

• How do you want people who don’t have the same advantages as you to be treated?

• What do you want the place you live in to be like?

• What makes you feel safe?

• What makes you feel you are being treated fairly?

• What rules do you think should be in place about how we act around each other?

• What do you think should happen when those rules get broken?

I’ve always done politics. I was brought up in a politically active household. I reported on politics and decisions about local communities for many years. I vote. (I once got accidentally missed off the electoral roll and nearly cried in front of the official who told me my name wasn’t on the list.)

However political discourse in the UK has become increasingly depressing over the past few years and I admit I talk about it less and less. It seems pointless to rail against a government busy doing nothing while people’s lives become more difficult.

But recently the situation seems to have become even worse and it’s intensified over the past month:

• Thousands of people are being killed in Israel and Gaza

• The new US Speaker of the House of Representatives is homophobic

• The UK prime minister is transphobic

• As the world faces a climate emergency, our politicians are supporting the fossil fuel industry, and slowing down transitions to greener alternatives.

It’s heartbreaking.

Then there are all the things that were already horrendous:

• The war in Ukraine

• The financial crisis facing so many people

• Refugees facing hostility or drowning in desperate attempts to find safety

• The criminalisation of abortion in America

• And a host of other awful situations which don’t make the headlines and I’m oblivious to.

I feel utterly helpless. And I wonder if not talking about it, if that feeling of helplessness, means more terrible things happen because we’re not doing anything to counter act what is happening.

I don’t have any answers but I’m going to try to unpack how I feel about what’s going on and then maybe we can start having conversations about solutions.

My question is: what good is democracy if we can’t build a supportive society?

The issues:

• You need a lot of money to be active in politics. It’s not something you can do and hold down a 9-5 job. That limits the number of people who can get involved in the first place.

• Money also dictates decisions. Fossil fuels still hold sway because of money, despite them not being in our collective best interest.

• Power is a funny thing: how do you get it in the first place? But once you have it, the entire system is rigged so that you get to keep it.

• This is an extension of power but some people have more privilege than others and they make sure they keep that privilege. If you’re a straight white male you have more opportunities and freedom than anyone else. How do we break through that? (I do know that being a straight white male isn’t necessarily a cushy existence and we obviously need to support people finding life hard regardless of who they are.)

• There’s something very wrong with our political structures. The UK one doesn’t work, neither does the US one. We can point to even worse ‘democracies’. Oscar Wilde described democracy as, ‘the bludgeoning of the people, for the people, by the people’ and blimey we seem to like being hit.

• The culture in politics is toxic. From poor management, to a system based on entrenched positions where you have to be diametrically opposed to others instead of finding consensus.

• There aren’t enough candidates for public office with the necessary skill set for success. We need people who understand the issues they are in charge of, who can think critically, see others, reason, and create inclusive cultures.

• Our political systems are not equipped to cope with modern society. Technology has sped up changes in every area of our lives but legislation cannot keep up with issues as they arise. By the time someone has spotted a problem, it’s reached the desk of a team who can look at it, evidence has been gathered, policy developed, and it reaches the first stage of legislation, that problem and its consequences have had free reign for a long time.

• We are trained not to ask questions, to accept things the way things are. This means we’re ill equipped to advocate for ourselves. Our political structures are also opaque at best so it’s not easy to find your way around and get the answers you need.

• We still have a Georgian political system where we try to outsmart each other, or be in charge of the conversation, while living in a global society. Doing things for the benefit of one small part of the world at the expense of the rest of it, or acting in our self-interest rather than community interest isn’t something we can get away with any more (if we ever could). We’re citizens of earth, we need to tackle multi-dimensional problems.

• We need proper long term planning, not short term solutions created because they help someone out of a political hole or keep them in power. 2030 is fast approaching. That’s the target for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals but our governments are focused on election terms, rather than actions which will lead to positive systemic change.

How do we tackle those problems? I don’t know. Everything is stacked against a national conversation, let alone creating an environment where change could happen.

But that doesn’t mean we stop asking for it.