Our problem today is that we remain wedded to an approach to governance that is unfit for purpose in a technological interconnected global economy. Our tiny primate brains are hardwired for simplicity and to cope with the very basic challenges we faced for 99% of our evolutionary history. Ordinary people are capable only of chanting empty soundbites and thus they are easy to dupe. Brexit, Trump, Modi, Orban, et al succeed because they can provide these mindless soundbites.

Brexit was of course national suicide - only morons would have voted for Brexit, and only morons did. Alas, morons comprise a significant percentage of every society, which is why permitting them to have any say in national policy is always a catastrophic mistake. Unfortunately we have learned nothing from the populist past and will continue to vote for self-harm until such time as we destroy the very civilization on which we all depend - and we'll do it while chanting mindless slogans and feeling great about how we're "saving" our countries from wicked foreigners. I just hope that many long years from now, a few clever people standing in the ruins will work out how to promulgate far more adequate systems of governance, because there's no way we can avoid the self-destruction of our present societies.