We live in an extraordinarily complicated world. Socially, politically, financially, environmentally. That doesn’t mean it is impossible to build better societies. It is by accepting and embracing that complexity and working together that we can move forward.

The Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s electoral campaign have both sought to reduce and deny that complexity, in favour of half-truths, lies and, in Trump’s case, the bullying arrogance of certainty. This is a recipe for disaster and is a shameful hijacking of the democratic process.

I once asked the mother of a child with profound disabilities how she coped. “You have to hold complexity in your hands,” she said. There’s a lesson there for all of us, from the humblest citizen to the most powerful politician.

Andrew Colley

Lecturer in special education, University of East London

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