We're on the brink of a precipice and might just jump

It's a momentous time in politics, which means it's serious for all of us. The American presidential elections are upon us (well, they've been piled on us for quite some time). Here in the UK we are also dukeing it out on our white clifftops as we try to leave Europe and the world stands by, baffled. It seems we are no longer in Kansas, and may soon be transported to the strange land of Oz.

If Donald Trump gets to be president or the UK continues it's midair plunge (following the pound into the abyss), we'll be living in a new world of goodness-knows-what. If you believe the press, it's all going to end in tears. In either case, I suspect problems appearing that nobody really saw, broken promises and real hardship. Worst of all, it could presage an age of division, and perhaps even a slide into war. After years of greater acceptance of one another, we seem to have flipped to the other end of the spectrum. Or at least around half of us have done so. Or have we? It may well be that those who seem so angry have had their frustrations festering for years, only to be given voice in Trump and Brexit. The whole of society seems to have polarized, with each side hating the other and flinging mud and vitriol rather than calmly discussing realistic policies.

I've been listening to the commentary of late that tries to explain Trump and populism. I've even had a go or two myself. Brexit was described as a vote-off between those who had everything to lose and those who had nothing to lose. It's probably similar in the USA. Some have gained. And some have lost their jobs or just stagnated. The great American Dream that hard work leads to success has palpably failed for many people. And, as has often been reported, the 1% are getting richer while the middle classes are contracting and the working classes just hanging on with their fingernails.

Migration is often quoted as a cause of woes, and it may be for some, yet this has been a complaint for hundreds of years and seems a symptom more than a root cause. It may also be a trigger, as in the Brexit vote. Globalization has also had its effects, as the open world has led towards a flattening and equalization of economies. There is far more to go, but the effects of a free market is that money flows to where it works best, including cheap work markets. Liberalization is a paradox that seeks fairness in equality of all people, yet when people who have nothing get something, those who had little before feel they are paying for this. Concern for the environment and the longer future also collides with those who are just struggling to get by today.

Will we jump? I suspect we may. Even if we do not, the problems that led to this suicidal tendency will not go away.

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