Words as a Window on our Humanity

In December I had an unexpected, and much needed, 2 hours alone in London. I headed straight for the Hockney exhibition Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris at Annely Juda Fine Art. I sat, alone, in the ‘Moon Room’, contemplating his iPad paintings of the night sky, moved by a combination of beauty, sadness, and exhaustion. Hockney places the question of perspective at the centre of his work, challenging us to consider the ways in which our own perspectives have given us a limited vision. This makes me wonder what other perspectives I should be seeking, what other views I should seek out, what other places I should be standing in order to see things differently, more completely perhaps?

When I began my freelance journalism course 16 months ago, I thought I was going to learn how to communicate my perspective to different kinds of audiences. I was inspired by ideas of progressive media and wanted to play my role in diversifying voices and shoring up our world’s defences against populism and polarisation. As I have progressed through my lessons and tried my hand at writing different kinds of features, I realised that I see the most important stories in the beauty of everyday life. The Christmas pantomime with thinly veiled jokes about Brexit, the new café in a Devon town where everyone feels welcome, the passion of a head teacher focused on inclusive education. A head-spinning kaleidoscope of vantage points from which to observe and understand this thing we call humanity.

Holding these different vantage points in a shared space of respect and diversity is hard. The Common Cause Foundation has launched a values in the media project, observing that “The values we prioritise as societies are hugely important; they impact what we collectively see as important in the world, and what we think and do about social and environmental issues.” Our values impact what we see. When the UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says illegal migration is tearing our country apart, we have a window onto her values, her humanity. She sees danger and destruction where others might see diversity, cultural richness or acts of solidarity. She observes political polarisation, violence, public services under strain. But instead of seeing structural inequalities and chronic mismanagement of public resources she sees migration as the problem.   

Where is the language of, and for, humanity? A careful choice of words, precisely because they represent a partial perspective, should be uppermost in the minds of our political representatives. A simple acknowledgement that how we see the world is a function of our values, might make us more inclined to shuffle our feet, move a little, turn our heads, train our ears onto another’s voice. Debates over whether the ‘wokerati’ have gone too far in policing language and enforcing an aggressive cancel culture, risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. Being mindful of our words, their history, their effects on others, and the way they betray our own values is surely fundamental to collective life.

The task of finding a language of, and for, humanity is one of the major tasks before us. But then, that’s just my perspective.

February 2026