We are living through an utterly lamentable era of history

On the day that World War II began, September 1, 1939, the poet W.H. Auden described the preceding 10 years as a “low dishonest decade”. Might we borrow from him and recognise the 12 months to December 31 as a “low dishonest year”? Has there ever been one when so many lies were told and so many democratic hopes left unfulfilled? Has there ever been a New Year’s Day of such foreboding? And yet, so many carry on as if everything is normal. It’s not. This year, 2026, must be the year we wake up and avert potential disaster.

Think of the events of last year. So inured have we become to extraordinary developments that we struggle to recognise them as extraordinary any more. At least not until December 14, when the year had only two weeks to run.



In Europe in 2025, a major land war entered its fourth year. The familiar background to our news feeds, it seems prosaic, a given. But is it?

Watch the news tonight. You will probably see drones diving into apartment blocks in Kyiv, bitter street fighting in snow-bound Donetsk, or an oil tanker exploding in the Mediterranean. This is how the V1 rocket attacks on London of 1944, the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 and the Battle of the Atlantic in 1943 looked to the people who experienced them. The past is catching up with us.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/we-are-living-through-an-utterly-lamentable-era-of-history-20260102-p5nr9n.html

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