When Power Replaces Responsibility, Everyone Becomes Less Safe

Humanity is a remarkable but deeply contradictory species. We are capable of extraordinary cooperation, empathy, and innovation. At the same time, we are vulnerable to fear, tribalism, and manipulation. Throughout history, societies have depended on leaders to act as catalysts for positive change, helping people coordinate, solve real problems, and build systems that protect collective wellbeing.

Unfortunately, history also shows a darker pattern. Leaders often discover that it is easier to mobilize people through emotion than through truth, and easier to gain loyalty through fear than through responsibility. When this happens, politics stops being a tool for problem solving and becomes a tool for narrative engineering. Reality is no longer something to be understood and managed but something to be shaped, simplified, and weaponized.

This shift is not just unhealthy. It is dangerous.  And it has been seeping into global society since the advent of social media and corporate news organisations.  As an Irishman I remember watching the program Points Of View on the BBC where people would call to account mistreatment or unbalanced treatment of topics aired by that channel.  Something similar was on Irish TV.  BBC as a Government broadcaster prided itself on its independence from Government oversight or influence which made it for me a stalwart of truth in a growingly deceptional news landscape.  Fast forward 20 years and now thanks to cable networks focusing on singular demographics to maximise viewer time we find ourselves in a world where everyone, EVERYONE, no matter how demented or twisted in their world view are being fed information that reinforces their invalid views on the right or on the left.  The attraction of government media is gone due to the mistrust fomented by their competitors to capture eyeballs on their channels.

We now live in a world where humanity possesses unprecedented power. Nuclear weapons, biological engineering, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, and climate destabilization mean that the consequences of political failure are no longer regional. They are global. The same psychological instincts that once fueled tribal conflict between villages now operate on a planetary scale.

This is why leadership matters more than ever.

The war in Ukraine is a clear example of how fragile our systems are. Russia’s invasion is a violation of international law and of basic moral principles. It is not a defensive act. It is an act of aggression that has caused massive civilian suffering, displacement, and destruction. That should be a point of moral clarity.

Yet instead of unity around shared principles, we increasingly see fragmentation. Powerful figures question alliances, undermine institutions, and cast doubt on long standing norms that were designed to prevent exactly this kind of conflict. Whether intentional or not, this behavior weakens deterrence, emboldens aggressors, and makes the world less predictable and more dangerous.

This is not about left or right. It is not about one party or one country. It is about a structural shift in how power is exercised. When leaders prioritize personal influence, identity battles, and emotional mobilization over truth, restraint, and long term responsibility, societies lose their ability to self correct.

The real danger is not any single individual. The danger is a system that rewards outrage more than wisdom, loyalty more than accountability, and spectacle more than competence. In such a system, even well intentioned people are pushed toward conflict because conflict is what generates attention, funding, votes, and visibility.

The result is a slow erosion of shared reality. Without shared reality, dialogue collapses. Without dialogue, compromise becomes betrayal. Without compromise, politics becomes permanent war by other means.

We should be honest about what is at stake. The question is no longer simply what kind of society we want, but whether our political and psychological maturity can keep pace with the power we now wield. If it cannot, the risks we face will continue to grow, not because humanity is evil, but because it is immature relative to its tools.

The future will not be saved by stronger tribes or louder narratives. It will be saved by leaders and citizens who are willing to value truth over comfort, responsibility over applause, and cooperation over domination.

That choice still exists. But it is becoming harder to make.

Lets support the leaders who represent the ideals reflected in this piece and shun populists and their sycophants who support their flawed narratives.