How do we make sense of the world we’re living in right now?

As we teeter on the precipice of World War 3, I have had more than a few friends confess to me they are wracked with anxiety. 

It brings to mind the Cold War fears captured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 magnum opus, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. As the US and Soviet Russia stockpiled nuclear weapons, the cold comfort offered to the ordinary people was that they probably wouldn’t bomb the other side because they would respond, resulting in nuclear Armageddon. At the time, this felt hopelessly naive. 

The acronym, MAD, stood for “mutually assured destruction” to capture this delicate balance, keeping the world safe. But for many, including Kubrick’s film, it was just simply mad. Crazy. Bananas. How do we trust volatile politicians and military leaders to remain calm and not start a war that would destroy all of us?

It feels a little like that now.

Ever since Donald Trump stepped back into the White House earlier this year, the normal rules have been upended. 

Forget Trump bypassing congress approval to drop “bunker buster’ bombs on Israel this past weekend, ostensibly to destroy its nuclear threat (though it feels like precisely the sort of thing that would encourage it…)

Think even smaller: Rules like the law applying equally to everyone, politicians being expected not to take bribes, criminals staying in prison, and everyone kinda caring when innocent children die in bloody wars or from aid being yanked with no notice. 

The global South gets left behind—again

Those of us out here in the developing world often have to contend with this sort of thing from our leaders. It’s a different thing when it comes to the world’s oldest continuous democracy, and a country that was supposed to keep up the fight for democratic values. The US. That country has vacated that rule, leaving the world vulnerable to the rise of fascism, as represented in part by Trump himself, who keeps finding novel and alarming ways to upend his country’s rules and stability – and thereby the rest of the world.

And we know who always suffers the most when chaos thrives: the poor, the marginalised and the powerless. That’s exactly what’s going to keep happening as the consequences of massive changes in the global order start to take effect with the chaos unleashed by the Trump administration.

Already, Africa is starting to get pushed out of the picture. Nearly two thirds of the continent’s country faces possibly travel bans to the US, the number of African leaders invited to the elite G7 gathering has dropped dramatically, and as the US cut aid across the world, particularly to Africa, other powerful countries and groupings have followed suit as everyone races to protect their own and put their country first.

The ideas of a world that together strives to be more just and equal, that repairs the injustices of colonialism and slavery, are rapidly being dismantled. It’s now all about the more powerful for themselves and the rest be damned.

The rest, dear friend, is you and I, here in the global South. We have always been down on the priority list in any big global political decision-making, an afterthought as global superpowers make their decisions. Bodies like BRICS aim to change that, but the push-back – especially from Trump – has been aggressive. The wealthy North/developed world will not relinquish their privilege so easily, nor will they account for their past and how it affects us. For evidence of this, just look at the repeated broken promises at the global climate talks, COP. Every year, the developing world is expected to adhere to reducing carbon emissions and at the same time, is shortchanged on funding, even though the global warming crisis the world is experiencing is thanks to industrialised nations spewing out CO2 for ages previously. 

Knowing isn’t the same as coping

But here’s the thing: Open up any news website and you can find any number of think pieces or news updates on this slow slide into fascism.

What you won’t find is how we deal with this as ordinary human beings… psychologically? Especially among those of us just trying to make ends meet, and do a decent job in our relationships and jobs, while still trying to be happy and healthy.

How do we do all that and hold the fact that 14,000 babies may die in Gaza as aid is withheld? How does one carry that weight emotionally?

One may take the route of simply burying one’s head in the sand. It’s tempting, but is it a solution?

According to Wednesday actor and activist Jenna Ortega, it isn’t. She posted on social media last week: “It is normal to feel confused & hopeless during this time…. But I strongly advise you never stop paying attention,” she wrote. “To say this doesn’t concern you, or that it isn’t your problem, is a privilege under abuse.”

That may be harsh. Most of us are just trying to survive our day-to-day lives. But the fact remains that the least we can do is stay aware. To bear witness. To remember.

Because this current right-wing backlash we’re experiencing won’t last forever – it can’t. It is the dying breath of a side that has long stood on the wrong side of history, that sees equality as oppression, and refuses to relinquish any privilege. 

We’d do well to take a page out of Dr. Strangelove. 

The film takes special aim at the blind faith some placed in military and political leaders. We cannot trust them, nor should we expect them to act in our best interest.

We must hold them to account and keep making ourselves heard. To do that, we have to keep knowing what is happening. To do anything less is to invite our own destruction, made even easier by our ignorance. 

verashni@explain.co.za |  + posts

Verashni is passionate about empowering citizens to hold those in power to account. She was previously editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian and HuffPost South Africa, and won the CNN African Journalism Award, among others.