The fabric of our society is held together by belief in fictions.
God, Government, Monarchy/Presidency, Nation and Money.
None of them are real. They are all fictions that are imbued in power by us. They were invented by people and provide the cohesion that holds society together.
The only reason they have any power is because we believe in them.
A large number of people no longer believe in them.
They do not believe in God.
They believe that our President and Queen are parasites. That their views and what they stand for are disgusting elitist inequality.
They believe that our governments are self-serving, lying, corrupt and incompetent.
They believe that all people are one species and that countries are artificial constructs that have no intrinsic worth. They have no desire to fight for the hierarchy of their own country against people of another nation that they have more in common with than they do with the elite that wants them to fight.
They are even losing faith in money. They see the grotesque inequalities and unfairness, the corruption and lust, and they are sickened by it.
The cohesion is falling apart. Society is dividing. The will to hold it together is evaporating.
We either crumble and allow the idiots with strong cohesion (the religious and political nutters) to prevail and become replaced by a new bunch of fanatics or we invent some better fictions to believe in.
Your diagnosis is, alas, pretty accurate. We are urgently in need of new visions of possible futures. For some reason the idea of a pop-up shop called ‘Better Fictions’ has, er, popped up in my mind! Been collecting phrases that might inspire me to create. “I don’t believe in final answers, only unfolding stories” – Tim Low. Not bad for start-ups, er, starters …
What a great idea Dave. I look forward to that.