Letter: Editor's Pick: Everything put together falls apart, unless we have a vision (2)

From Paul G. Ellis, Chichester, West Sussex, UK

Spinney's article and your Leader (20 January, p 5) provide a useful underpinning for thoughts that must be haunting many of us who have paid attention to world news in the last decade. What they omit, however, is a vision or ideas that might inspire a great majority of humanity toward a long-term consensus.

Though Marxism, for example, has manifestly failed – arguably through its divisiveness – its early spread did show the possibility of inspirational ideas having powerful and widespread influence. Surely, now, attempts should be made to counter pessimism by trying to work out and promulgate some inspirational vision of humanity's future to which most governments, organisations and populations might be able and willing to subscribe.

It won't be easy to find common ground between authoritarian and democratic governments, nor across sectarian and other divides – but that just indicates how far-seeing such a vision would need to be.