During the worst periods of the war in former Yugoslavia, UWC Adriatic opened its doors to welcome their young men and women; and when refugees escaped from the Balkans to neighbouring Slovenia and here in Italy, this college was right there with them. We washed their feet, we enveloped them in a warm embrace, and we listened to their stories.
As humans, we tend to project our highest aspirations on to our leaders, expecting them on their worst days to be the embodiment of who we struggle to be on our best days. Donald Trump simply bucked the trend. He had no time (or capability) for make-believe – he lived out his real and true self on the pages of Twitter every single day, and that scared some of us and emboldened the rest of us. Our society indeed is polarized, far beyond what we are prepared to admit.
At its core, populism seeks to polarize populations and utilize the tactic of fear to pursue narrow-minded objectives. Populism has fuelled some of the worst episodes of subjugation that the world has experienced and it is sadly making a comeback. Some argue that it may not last long as the world moves in waves, but could this be the beginning of the end of rational politics?
In December 2015, I had the privilege of being in Madrid to attend the inaugural meeting of the Common Action Forum, a new attempt to engineer solutions to political, social and economic challenges globally. Learning from and sharing ideas with world-leading experts on social justice, political reform and economic ideology was a welcome addition to my regular investments in education… Read More »The Burden of History, Tradition and Reputation