Well, we're nearly there. Congratulations are in order. If you're reading this, you've almost made it to the end of 2016 intact.
It's been a tumultuous year – in the popular imagination 2016 was such a stinker that it's even become an advertising trope.
What has made this year so difficult? Was it any more difficult than other years? One historian claims that though 2016 has been momentous for all sorts of reasons, actually, it doesn't compare to 1498 – a year which changed the history of the world.
I think there's probably three things going on here. First, it really has been a momentous year, second we're learning that progress doesn't happen smoothly and third, we're in a more connected age than ever before.
Let's have a look at each of these in turn:
A momentous year
There's no getting away from it, this year has been packed full of significant events. The calamitous war in Syria has, rightly, grabbed the headlines. The entry of Russia into the war and the consequent tipping of the balance in favour of President Bashar Al Assad has the potential to affect the geopolitical map for generations.
It isn't just Syria, though. Yemen has been brought to its knees by a Saudi bombing campaign, and the effects of Shia rebels. South Sudan has descended into a bloody conflict. Terrorist attacks have hit the streets of France and Germany in a cycle of almost unimaginable horror. There have been more police shootings of unarmed black civilians, with some reprisal attacks following.
The year also saw the deadliest ever mass shooting on US soil in Orlando, as well as the the brutal murder of British Member of Parliament Jo Cox on the streets of her constituency.
We can hardly ignore two of the biggest and most far-reaching events of the year. The Brexit vote has not only thrown the future of the UK into doubt. It threatens to change the whole of Europe, with EU-sceptic parties riding high in the polls in several European states.
Donald Trump's election as US president is also momentous. Though the full implications will not become clear until he assumes the job properly in 2017, it is obvious that in many, many ways, he is going to break with orthodox political behaviour. The consequences of this in areas such as climate change, nuclear weapons and relations with Russia are likely to be far reaching. Even those who welcome Brexit and Trump must realize that these political incidents have shown the cavernous division within our societies – itself a cause for major concern.
Progress isn't happening
As westerners in liberal democracies, we been told a story that since the end of the Cold War, things were getting better. Globalisation was good for everyone. Goods were getting cheaper, borders were coming down and everyone was becoming 'like us'.
It would be easy now, to reach for the opposite conclusion – that things are getting worse and we're on the highway to hell. Neither view is right. The world isn't getting inexorably worse, but optimistic progressives need to see that despite technological, medical and social advances, progress doesn't happen automatically.
Martin Luther King famously recounted the phrase, "The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice." As Christians, we instinctively resonate with this. Yet the key to really understanding it is to realize that justice doesn't come about via a smooth, linear process where everything gets better in an orderly fashion.
The 20<sup>th Century, which brought the Civil Rights Movement, votes for women and saw smallpox eradicated, also saw genocides in Armenia, Srebrenica and the Holocaust itself. Steven Pinker, the popular philosopher, famously proclaims that we are in the most peaceful, democratic and healthy time ever. Though there are some data to back up his argument, it does seem hopelessly naïve at the same time. Believing Pinker's thesis lulls us into the sort of progressive daydream where calamitous events sneak up on us without our realizing. Surely that's what 2016 teaches us?
While as Christians we have hope that 'all things shall be well' as Julian of Norwich put it, we must realize that the linear 'whiggish' view of progress is incorrect.
We're more connected
A final reason 2016 seems to have been so fraught is the way in which we are now connected to each other. Social media has become omnipresent, not only in the US and UK but around the world. The Syria conflict is one which we are watching in real time. Unlike previous generations, we won't be able to say we didn't know what happened in Aleppo until afterwards.
Facebook and Twitter now allow us to follow live video streams from anywhere in the world. We are now so close to tragedy that it can feel almost overwhelming. We have become ever more aware of the disasters occurring around the world thanks to social media, even as we ordinary people remain powerless to affect many of those situations. This feeling of overload of tragedy combined with being unable to influence events may help to explain why 2016 has felt so overwhelming for some.
As we reach the end of this tumultuous year, we can look back to try and understand just why it has seemed so eventful and loaded with significance. As we look into 2017, we should keep these factors in mind. Let's hope for a bright 2017, but be prepared for whatever it may throw at us.
