In times of existential fear, we must be especially wary of believing that reason will win out. The war in Ukraine is a current tragic example of this as it highlights transgressions committed by another country that are normally considered unthinkable – and unthinkable precisely because they do not come from a rational source.

As COVID-19 sweeps across the globe, threatening lives in every country, regardless of race, wealth or politics, we see borders hardening and a further retrenchment into nationalism as self-defence becomes our paramount concern. On an international scale, xenophobia escalates with fingers pointed at the Chinese as the source of coronavirus. In those places where self-isolation is the local form of protection, every neighbour is the “other”, the potential harbinger of death.

Last March, Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency predicted that in 20 to 25 years England would be in “the jaws of death” without enough water to supply our needs. For many of us our expectation of continuing growth and prosperity and limitless natural resources is no longer sustainable. We are having to manage loss on a large scale; loss of resources, loss of industries, loss of traditional social structures. Globalization has created radical shifts in the world economy, resulting in increasing inequality, immigration and erosion of national identities. These shifts are deeply affecting our identity both as individuals and as members of communities.

The world listens as Donald Trump, President of the United States, on a state visit to the United Kingdom bemoans the fact that Prime Minister, Theresa May, had “wrecked Brexit” because she had not taken his advice. We then see Trump, standing at a podium at Chequers alongside May, declaring that “Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister.” May deftly brushed off Trump’s criticisms, saying, “Don’t worry, it’s only the press.”

Cambridge Analytica Uncovered: Secret filming reveals election tricks

UK Chanel 4 News documentary 19/03/2018

“The two fundamental human drivers when it comes to taking information on board effectively are hopes and fears and many of those are unspoken and even unconscious. You didn’t know that was a fear until you saw something that just evoked that reaction from you. And our job is to get, is to drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else, to understand what are those really deep-seated underlying fears, concerns. It’s no good fighting an election campaign on the facts because actually it’s all about emotion. The big mistake political parties make is that they attempt to win the argument rather than locating the emotional center of the issue, the concern, and speaking directly to that.”

On Friday 2nd February 2018, Trump defended the recent Pentagon decision to upgrade the US nuclear arsenal. Trump assured Americans as he flexed his muscles at the world, stating, “As part of our defence we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully, never having to use it but making it so strong and so powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression.”

Echoing the words of Truman on the eve of Hiroshima in 1945, Trump promises “fire and fury like the world has never seen," in response to Kim Jong-Un’s threatened preemptive military strikes against the US. Two leaders, striving for omnipotence and struggling with internal political dissent and conflict. By threatening to exterminate North Korea, Trump validates Jong-Un’s paranoia and exposes his own anxiety about remaining in power. Is this the war we’ve been waiting for? And, if so, what are the reasons this is happening now?

A patient in her early thirties recently admitted that she hadn’t voted, yet again, in the UK elections because she felt overwhelmed by information, tweets, Facebook messages and instagrams giving her bits of information that she couldn’t make sense of. And, worst of all, she didn’t know what was true and wasn’t. At least 40% of the American public turn to social media as their only source of news. Social media, in all its multifarious forms, has overtaken full sentences and live voice contact as a way of communicating, whether it be directions, experience, self-importance, or the condemnation or praise of public figures. The success of electioneering is increasingly dependent on sound bite slogans, one line mantras, or 140 characters.