Sinner is a clear winner, but are we sinning against ourselves?

With the withdrawal of defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, from the Men’s Draw of the forthcoming French Open, everyone must be expecting to honour Jannik Sinner to be this year’s champion. His victory in the recent Madrid tournament makes him the first player to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles- Paris, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo and now Madrid. Alex Zverev could offer little resistance in the Madrid final.

Sinner’s golden run of prowess and assuredness stands in dire contrast to most affairs of State.

Who could honestly say that the Western democracies have the authority and public support they had at the end of the Cold War?

Keir Starmer’s Labour government in England took office with one of the largest popular mandates in British electoral History. This week’s Council elections across England are likely to further erode his already radically diminished authority.

In France, we can be relieved that their latest Prime Minister seems likely to survive in office for more than a year; however, President Macron is an enfeebled leader staggering towards the end of his term.

Across the Atlantic and around the world political movements, mainly of a populist, oppositional nature are sprouting and succeeding, if only to fracture the political consensus.

In Australia next week the Federal government will renege on its express election commitments, made only last year, not to alter taxation arrangements for housing. Their rationale is that suddenly the zeitgeist has changed and they will be forgiven for their policy reversal.  Apparently, trust and commitment are malleable commodities. One wishes Australia's national debt of over one trillion dollars was as easily reversed.

So, who does anyone believe? Certainly, there is not a great amount of respect for politicians across the Anglosphere.

In younger years I remember the outrage when assassins attempted to kill President Ford and Reagan. There was bi-partisan distress about the fractures these events caused to the democratic pulse of the country. Following the most recent attempt on Trump’s life, what do I hear? A slew of preposterous conspiracy theories and , worse, bitter comments from Trump's opponents bemoaning there has not yet been a successful attempt on the President’s life.

Imagine if Kamala Harris had been assassinated as an American President; the collective Left would have proclaimed the death of democracy and the triumph of fascism. Some seem to perversely think that Trump’s assassination is required for the restoration of democracy.

So, who is keeping the true democratic faith? Well, last week in Washington, it was the defender of the English faith, King Charles III, who reminded Congress and the world, that there are some values and beliefs that can and must not be destroyed the tsunami of Tik-Tok analysis.

In an address that would give any secondary Civics teacher heart, Charles spoke of how the threads of the Magna Carta and the rule of law have woven together over the centuries to promote enduring democratic and human values.  His self-deprecating tone married perfectly with his reminders to Congress and to parliaments around the world that their task is to create conditions and circumstances in which the life of the citizen can be made better.

Charles’ address was a regal reminder of the importance of taking a broad view of history and its consequences. To know and value perspective. To understand the sheer scale of what humans have achieved, both good and evil.

To have such perspective requires knowledge, consideration, and judgement. Sadly, it appears that these qualities are increasingly evanescent.

A student recently asked me without any hint of irony, “How did teachers teach before the arrival of Artificial Intelligence?” How can we value and learn from the past if an oncoming generation believe that nothing ‘real’ existed before AI? Even more sinister and sabotaging of the human condition is the implicit view that AI is a Godsend which will somehow provide all necessary certitudes.  It is heartbreaking to think that a generation may not have the willingness or the ability to discern, analyse, find nuances, and make considered judgements.

Cicero worried about who would “edit the editors”. Today, he would be distraught at wondering “who is reading and thinking?”

Many aspects of life have become abbreviated and with it our attention span and focus.

Tennis may have played an unwitting part.  In the 1970s matches played over the best of five advantage sets were suddenly considered too long for spectators and could not be confidently scheduled by television stations, so tie-break sets were introduced.

At the same time microwave ovens became essential kitchen items to expedite food preparation.

The arrival of the Internet meant that we did not have to autonomously search for anything. E-mails replaced letters and then were replaced by text messages. Sat Nav devices mean that people no longer have an intrinsic sense of direction. Conversations with bank tellers and shop assistants have all but disappeared as we ‘tap’ our way between providers. Rather than have “the candidates’ debate” that Simon and Garfunkel sung about, we have contests in politics that are reduced to “media bites” and social media “feeds.”

No doubt the virtue of watching Charles’ speech would be considered dubious by many on the basis that its 24 minutes duration is unbearably long!

F. Scott Fitzgerald observed the human tendency to, “beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past".  

More worrying is the contemporary wish to spurn an understanding of what has come before. We are embracing a way of life where all must be instantaneously understood and explained. Where only the immediate is relevant and important.

Donne wrote about the endless, difficult and restless search for enlightenment:

On a huge hill,

Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and he that will

Reach her, about must and about must go,

Donne’s eternal personal search has been increasingly surrendered and sacrificed on facile and seductive altars of technology. We are fixated  only on “the here and now.” The eternal search has become the instantly ephemeral.