Why I haven’t given up on idealism

This week, I was moderating a session at the UN General Assembly in New York...

As an idealistic teenager, I had been infatuated with its lofty mission of promoting international collaboration and peace. Witnessing it at closer quarters as an adult, my reverence turned to cynicism, if not despair. 

Yet, just when I feel tempted to succumb to cynicism entirely, something about the place and its organisation manages to reawaken my former teenage optimism. It happened when I walked along the green carpet leading into the General Assembly hall, and saw the multicoloured whirl of nearly 200 flags festooning the entrance.

No, nothing tangible has happened yet to actually unlock more money for poor nations. In that sense, the exchange was just the kind of ritualistic summit-speak that the climate activist Greta Thunberg has described as “blah, blah, blah”.

Gillian Tett 20 September 2023

https://www.ft.com/content/6abde0dc-7c5d-4ca4-90a9-e03b981ca401