[CN: All the things]

Dear noodly overlord,

I know that 2016 has already started but you’re as generous as the FSMas season is long.

I know that if you look at it from one way there’s never been a better time to be alive. Last year was the first year child mortality rates fell below 6 million. The overrall deaths from war and conflict are in decline. We might be able to cross polio off the list soon. Global life expectancy is over 70, the highest it’s ever been. Only 0.4% of the world’s population are enslaved which could well be an all-time low. There’s even signs of movement on the climate change front (although it would be a while before the 2015 numbers are crunched properly).

On the other hand, 2015 was excrementally bad. A year best encapsulated by the image of Alan Kurdî’s body washed up on the beach at Bodrum. The world showed its true colours more than before and the degree of our indifference to each other (whether we’re talking about war, genocide, asylum seekers, race, gender, inequality etc) became even harder to deny.

2015 was also the year where it became harder to deny growing momentum of the opinion of ordinary people (or at least the 40% of people who have the internet). I’m not talking about activism which has had a pretty massive year as well. I mean the opinion of us, the “general public”, which can have an effect even in non-democracies. Here’s my 2016 wishlist for how you can enlighten us with your noodly appendage:

2016 could be the make or break year for us all. Maybe some of the modest successes of last year could scale up, but if you can’t help us I’m afraid we’ll just fuck it all up past the point of no return. We’re all in.

Yours faithfully,
Michael

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