As the Christmas break ends and reality intrudes, many people feel deeply uncomfortable with the world around them. The news feels alien. Politics feels broken. The economy feels cruel and irrational.

In this video, I explain why that discomfort is not a personal failing; it is a rational response to a world driven by neoliberal madness, authoritarian politics, and moral collapse.

If you think Trump is mad, Farage is dangerous, Labour has failed, financial capitalism is destructive, and empathy still matters — you're not alone.

Feeling out of step today often means you're seeing more clearly than those who've learned to accept the unacceptable. Change has always come from people prepared to be called “unreasonable”.

This video is about clarity, humanity, and why hope still matters as we move into 2026.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

As we come to the end of the Christmas and New Year break, many people are being forced to face reality again.   Monday morning is back to work for millions of people, and that means that we will all have to face the madness that appears to prevail within our world.

This video is about why you're not crazy to think that the world is mad, and why the discomfort you feel is totally rational. In a word, in a phrase,  you're not crazy; they are.

Many   feel the world no longer reflects who they are.  The news feels alien. The opinions pushed at you feel wrong. The things being sold to you feel disconnected from what matters,   and let me stress, you're not alone in feeling this. You're one of the many.

I know that lots of people watching this channel often ask, "Is it just me who feels like this? Am I the one who's out of step? Am I missing something that everybody else is seeing? Why am I alone?" And the answer is, "You're not."

You're not wrong to feel this way. The truth is, you're the one who's seeing the world clearly; it's the rest who are out of step by embracing the madness of the world around us.

You're not crazy if you  think Donald Trump is mad; he is.

You're not crazy if you think Nigel Farage is bad; he is.

You're not crazy if you think Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have failed you; they have.

You're not crazy if you think the Conservatives have fallen off the edge of politics; they have, and there is no way back.

This is not extremism on your part. It's an observation of reality in all these cases; the world is crazy, you're not.

You're not crazy if you think Scotland and Wales should be independent; these are now very obvious rational choices.

You're not crazy if you're  looking at the Greens for political leadership now; we need the sort of alternatives that they're talking about.

You're not crazy if you hate the consequences of financial capitalism.

You're not crazy to see that it has been  let off its green obligations, and they're delighted about that fact.

You're not crazy to see that this threatens your wellbeing, that of your children and your grandchildren, and maybe those who come after them.

You're not crazy if you want to change all of this; you're sane.

You're not crazy if you think a better world is possible; you're right.

You're not crazy to have hope in a desperate world; hope is how change happens.

Some people will call you unreasonable, but that has always been how progress works. I'd remind you that George Bernard Shaw once said over a century ago, "  Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people try to change it. All progress is therefore dependent upon the existence of unreasonable people."

And if that's what they call you, celebrate it. Your unreasonableness is precisely that: a cause for celebration because you're the change agent that might just make this world a better place.

The world   we live in is crazy.

Many leaders are driven by the madness of neoliberalism.

Others have adopted policies that are racist, authoritarian, or just dangerously close to fascism.

Your unease about them is wholly justified.

You're not crazy to worry about Ukraine.

You're not crazy to think that what Benjamin Netanyahu has done is a war crime. It is, and that   does not make you an anti-Semite. Whatever the opponents of your position say, it makes you human. And it makes you empathic, and empathy is what defines us as human. Elon Musk says otherwise. He says empathy is human failing, but he's wrong. He is utterly off the scale of humanity by making that claim. You're right, he's wrong. Caring is not failure; caring is clarity in a world gone mad.

Don't worry if you stand out as a result; we need people who do. I've lived for 20 years of being told:

• I should not hold the views that I talk about on this channel.
• That I'm professionally incompetent by the accounting profession.
• That I'm a dreamer.
• That there is nothing that I argue for that is possible, and that
• I am just plain, straightforwardly wrong on every occasion.

But by sticking to my guns:

• International tax law has been changed both for individuals and multinational corporations to the extent that much of the power of tax havens has been taken down.
• Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party in part by using my ideas, because  let's not beat around the bush, Corbynomics was my creation, and
• The Green New Deal, which I co-wrote and am the main author of since 2009, has entered the global debate.

The fact that things happen because people refuse to conform is my point. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying change is possible.

And the reality is that if you feel pain, it's because you see things clearly. Others may have knowledge, but you have something much more valuable. You have understanding, and that trumps knowledge every day, because  knowledge without understanding is technocratically useless. Knowledge with understanding becomes what makes things possible, and you can   see right from wrong, and that's not madness, that is humanity.

You matter, in other words, because you can influence change in your own way, at your own pace, in your own place. That's why I want to talk to you on this channel. That's why I'm talking to you now, I hope.

The world will still look mad in 2026. Nothing is going to change overnight, but trust me, I am certain that change is possible because I have effected change in this world, and you are as much an agent of change as I am.

You can make your own difference, that's the point I'm making. Whatever it is, however you choose to do it, whether it's just by sharing these videos or commenting, or talking to friends or neighbours, or people on the bus, it doesn't matter. You can be the point of difference. So let's get on with it. There is a difference to make. Let's make it in 2026.

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