In a highlights reel of the past six years we’ve had: #MeToo, Brexit, Trump, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, the Capitol riots, Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis, #partygate, the protests against SARS in Nigeria, the escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Taliban r... See more

As those movies attest, we excel at imagining future scenarios, including awful ones. But such apocalyptic visions are a form of escapism, not a moral summons, and still less a plan of action. Where we stumble is in conjuring up grim futures in a way that helps to avert them.