Things are bad. For a lot of people, things are always bad. So many things we used to depend on are broken.

We all get to an age where we look at the world and think, it was broken when I got here. Change on the scale that is needed to get things where they need to be feels like it is beyond our capabilities, not least because there are always people who will fight against every change. And because there are others who, with the best of intentions, believe the only effective way to bring about the change we need is through brute force.

The problem is always the same: some people want to hurt others. They are always on the lookout for some group of people – immigrants or racists or trans people or pedophiles or billionaires – who it is OK to hurt, because they deserve it. Once you decide it is acceptable, or even honorable, to inflict pain on people, the only obstacle to morally sanctioned brutality is defining the group of acceptable victims.

The solution is not easy but it is simple. It is so simple it can be summed up with one word everyone understands: love. Everyone knows what it means and what it takes. The final obstacle to a world where tyrannical narcissists call the shots and innocent and kind are shot is our fear of love’s vulnerability.