I began with the general idea that things are complicated, obviously on the geopolitical scale but happily that’s not my beat. There comes a point in crisis where agnosticism is complicity, where to insist that things are complicated is to dismiss clear and present evil. But to insist there is no crisis is to deny patent suffering, whether our own or, more commonly, our neighbours’. We need the simple things so we can have complicated thoughts and feelings and make complex things. So at the end of 2025, I haven’t lost my faith in scholarly thinking, in agnosticism and grey areas.

Source: The Irish Times December 22, 2025 10:31 UTC