As the world continues to face polycrises, we do so in a more unknown setting than ever before. Events such as Donald Trump's re-election have left many in despair about the state of the world and where democracy is heading, but all is not hopeless.

'Our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do. Our mistake was to see the joy, the extraordinary balance between idealism and pragmatism, the energy, the generosity ... and think that it must triumph over the politics of lies and resentment.

"Our mistake was to think that racism and misogyny were not as bad as they are, whether it applied to who was willing to vote for a supremely qualified black woman or who was willing to vote for an adjudicated rapist and convicted criminal who admires Hitler. Our mistake was to think we could row this boat across the acid lake before the acid dissolved it."

So wrote writer and historian Rebecca Solnit in The Guardian in the immediate aftermath of the recent US election. Donald Trump's re-election has sent more than a ripple across the world; it has the potential to blur the boundaries of the world order as we know it, provide licence to every leader with an authoritarian bent to push the boundaries and create further schisms between Europe, the US and the rest of the world.

South Africa, which has its own challenges and unique ability to stymie its own...