Member-only story
Uncertainty Is Essential: It’s How We Make Sense of the World
The US midterms, William Kentridge’s apartheid-era art, and finding hope from history
I often find hope in the precariousness of our present day by turning to history and looking at what has happened in the past. There’s a precedent for most scenarios.
Yesterday Americans cast their votes in the midterm elections, the results of which politicians and commentators have been warning could be catastrophic for political stability in the US. Democracy is under threat with the rise of the Far Right. The rhetoric of hate is prevalent in public discourse. Guns are everywhere. And with the memory of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021 still fresh, it feels like a tinderbox situation.
The majority of Republican candidates running for office in this race are election deniers, and more than half of those are expected to win their seats. It remains to be seen whether the rest will accept the results if they lose. The reality is that election deniers don’t care about people’s rights because they don’t hold themselves accountable to voters. When politicians who don’t respect the results of the ballot box are in charge, we’re in the realms of authoritarianism.
