EDITORIAL: A little kindness goes a long way

News of a killer disease outbreak in a far-away country trickles through. Border closures and mandatory home stays change the world as we know it. Fake news flourishes, hate divides us despite miracle vaccines and millions dead. A nuclear power invades a neighbouring country. Food and fuel prices soar. Crushing poverty increases, as a handful of super-rich become wealthier. A climate crisis threatens the existence of all living things, a fact we mostly ignore. If this were the plot of a novel it would be described as far-fetched and silly. But reality is often far stranger than fiction. Just over a decade ago, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, in his book ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature’, wrote that humans had never lived in such peaceful times – the sharp decline of societal violence constituting a “most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.’

The past two years have put a mighty dent in Pinker’s theory. Half an hour spent on any social media or news platform highlights a bold new time of (bloodless) violence among humans. We might not die at each other’s bloodied hands any longer – though too many still do – but we have not achieved some sort of civilised, peaceful zenith. So, as we bundle ourselves up against the cold, perhaps one way to showcase humanity’s so-called progress is to make time to reach out to someone who might need a helping hand. Whether it is a charity, a stranger, or a friend - you can do your bit to stave off misery, hunger, cold.

The chaos will continue to soar, the plot veer off into even crazier territory. But each of us can do a little something, every day, or week, to highlight humanity’s progress, rather than its failures.