Are we being stupid?

Could it be the economy after all?

If your circles are anything like mine there’s a LOT of handwringing this year about how to pushback on what feels like the populist trajectory of the zeitgeist.

I regularly articulate 2 problems - both a result of my understanding of modern information environments.

We need to re-think how we conceive of effective strategic communication if we want to be more effective
We need to increase awareness of how the structure of the information environment itself impacts the prospect of effective communication

But I have talked less about 3.

Even the best communicators need a vision to sell

In all the conversations I’ve had on a range of thematic topics - climate, migration, democracy, human rights - there is a consistent absence of vision.

There’s no shortage of problem diagnosis but solutions are conspicuous by their absence.

My view is that striving to increase the ‘salience’ of specific issues like climate change is a dead-end in the current environment.

Instead, we need to craft a compelling vision that enables us to talk to the many links between the different issues many of us work on.

Over the course of this year it’s become increasingly clear to me that this has to be done through the economy.

Ahead of the last UK election Rootcause looked at political discourse on TikTok - we found cost of living was the main topic.

Let’s face it, our economy is struggling and many of the fears opportunist politicians pick up are derived from this. Addressing this is made all the harder by challenges we have around an aging population and increasing security threats.

Public opinion research shows that a majority of British people think we should close the gap between rich and poor EVEN IF the country doesn’t get richer as a result. A majority also believe that people are responsible for their own outcomes in life.

That belief in agency is precious - but it depends on the economy actually rewarding effort. If we don’t show more clearly how that can happen then that belief will curdle into further resentment and extractive AI companies, populist politicians and assorted chancers will reap the rewards.

To protect it, we need to find the values we share, stories that bring them alive, and ideas that take root from them. That’s a critical job for 2026.