It is a relief to be done with a decade defined by division – now we must all help to knit society back together

At this time for resolutions, let’s make a resolution – not just for the year ahead but for the decade to come – and make this a decade of reconnection

Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the issue of Brexit have loomed large over the last few years (Reuters)

The dawning of a new year, and a new decade, should be a moment of hope. Many of us will also enter the 2020s with some trepidation.

We are more divided than we understood ourselves to be a decade ago. When the last decade began, the word Brexit had yet to be coined, and Donald Trump commanded only a reality television boardroom. It would be a relief to leave behind what has often been a decade of division.

The fractious, high-stakes, political arguments have helped shine a light on tensions in our society – between cities and towns, across social classes and ethnic groups, and across generations – that had been neglected for too long. These fractures require more attention. Yet there is a danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy – where we tell ourselves that these divisions must define us. Nobody wants to live in a society where we become more distant from, even perhaps afraid of, our fellow citizens.

At this time for resolutions, let’s make a resolution on this first day of the 2020s – not just for the year ahead but for the decade to come – and make this a decade of reconnection.

We should rediscover what we share. Ours is still a society of decency and kindness, exemplified in our commitment to the values of care that we see with the NHS. While we all value the freedom that new technologies bring, we should act on the growing appetite to choose to do more together too.

Promoting a decade of reconnection does not depend on pretending that we all agree – or accepting exhortations that it is time to leave all of our differences behind. In a democracy, we should celebrate our ability to protest and to dissent. There will be big and difficult conversations about identity and difference, about race and class, that we should not duck.

But we can seek to disagree better, when we recognise that people who have different experiences and views are our fellow citizens too. When we sit down with each other, we can usually find some common ground too.

What would a decade of reconnection involve? It’s something that we can all shape. Every institution – whether in education, business, sport, culture or the media – can make its own distinct contributions to strengthen our connections with one another.

Culture can play a vital role. Theatre asks us to stand in each other’s shoes – to engender empathy and perspective-taking. Culture should speak to the state of our nation in divided times. We can help to humanise and sometimes to bridge the polarisations in our society – as long as we do not find ourselves only reaching those with whom we already agree.

The task of knitting a society together again is something to which each of us can make a contribution. We could begin with a single act – to repair a relationship with family or friends from whom we have drifted apart, or make one new connection with a neighbour we often see but don’t yet know.

We can demand better from our political leaders in the months and years ahead but the power of reconnection should come from society. Whether we can kick start a decade of reconnection will depend on how many of us, as citizens, step up together and rebuild a sense of empathy and connection on which society depends.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is the artistic director of the Young Vic theatre