Hate-filled Trumpism and pitiless Covid have shattered old certainties

IT WAS back in the black and white rain-soaked 1970s that sunshine package holidays to the continent had the flavour of something from another galaxy. At least that’s how it feels when viewed through the notoriously inexact prism of rose-tinted nostalgia.

The reality, of course, is the ’70s weren’t all dreariness. The downpours back then were no doubt about average for a country with such a wayward climate as ours.

This put-upon decade had its colourful interludes, despite the naff hair styles and cringe-inducing fashions.

Yet memories of those annual excursions to sundry Mediterranean hot spots will be forever tinged with sun-kissed glamour. What matter if it was all done with an eye to keeping things cheap and cheerful.

On the Costa Del Wherever, all human life was washed by endless sunshine. At times there seemed a lightness of being; a fragrance of sunny optimism hung in the air.

There was also the exotic presence of other nationalities.

The annual two-week break on a golden coastline was as alluring for Germans and Scandinavians, as for pale-faced Brits and Irish.

But looking back through the decades, this was one of those moments in time in the progression of what we called the developed world. Mass tourism was in full flow, surely a symptom things were getting better all round.

There was a momentum, a belief that, all things being equal, the march of humankind towards a better future could not be stopped. This was part of the accepted order.

When indulging the languid ease of the Mediterranean coastline there was a kind of dogged optimism about. Things were surely on the up. Whatever would be the ebb and flow of days to come, distant horizons held their own promise. The future would hold its own truth. Progress of a kind could not be thwarted.

But such faith that something in the ether cannot but drive humankind forever forward has been dealt a hammer blow these months past. Trumpism, in its hate-filled excess, and a pitiless Covid, endlessly seeking out the most vulnerable, have dented old certainties.

Who would have predicted in their wildest imaginings this week’s scenes in Washington, where the very citadel of government was overwhelmed by a gun-toting mob.

Images flashed around the world were stunning in their foreboding symbolism.

Our belief that America is the ultimate protector of the free world, in the space of a few hours, rarely looked more fragile.

The dominant superpower on the planet had turned inwards, raging against itself. The heart and soul of the country has been tested and traumatised. There are wounds which will take a long time to heal.

The nightmare may run and run. A skulking Donald Trump and his millions of followers will continue to taunt from the sidelines.

There is a stark lesson from all the hatred and bile on show. If such self-destruction can erupt in a country which is the ultimate defender of the liberal democratic life we take for granted, is any nation safe from the strains of extremism

Then there is the Covid pandemic. Would anybody as far back as the 1970s have believed modern medicine – which saw off TB, diphtheria and polio – could be so threatened by a new unknown disease.

This virus has shattered many

certainties about a kind of life we took for granted, and accepted as the norm.

The psychological legacy of the pandemic, on so many levels, will be long reaching, apart from the physical toll it has wreaked on so many.

In the months ahead traumas cloaked by lockdown will come back to haunt us.

A bottom line is a new unease as to whether the genius of medicine and science can protect us from the unknown.

This is the ultimate reality of the new year of 2021. The world feels a vulnerable place. Back in those 1970s days of sunny beaches, at least for a moment in time, we were told a rising tide lifts all boats.

But Trumpism and Covid arrived without mercy.

We are now reminded there are times the tide goes out. We can but wait for its return.

The dominant power on the planet has turned inwards, raging against itself