A World Adrift? Drifting Where?

By Robert Ward - January 2026

We exist in a world that is adrift. Politically. Socially. Interpersonally. I have the feeling that most of the people around me feel the same way, but how can we know? Polling is only the most crude measurement of how people feel. The forces of social media and political persuasion all conspire to keep us agitated and overstimulated and we end up vibrating so fast that we are challenged to feel connected with what is all around us. Even as I write this, I feel how my mind’s concentration has been fractured by this world that we are a part of. 

I have a liberal friend, a former colleague, who has been trying to convince Facebook posters of the political dangers that surround us, and try and move people towards being less right-wing. She has been completely unsuccessful. Social media  gives the illusion of connectivity, much as AI gives us the illusion of actual intelligence. Many political commentators have written that the fabric of reality is dissolving under the assault of deep fake photos and videos. The recent killings in Minnesota are a perfect example of how the Republicans think that their superpower is shameless hypocrisy. The rest of us live in a world of trying to find the truth and bring it to light. But it is an extremely heavy lift to counteract the forces of billionaire consolidated media. Still, the truth has arisen in the form of mass protests in the frigid cold. In the photos, icicles are everywhere, hanging onto knitted caps, eyebrows, the sleeves of nordic fleece. But underneath, the feelings are hot. Boiling. Raging. 

I have often thought that the GOP overplays its hand every time. Change never happens without chaos. Are in the midst of something profoundly new? Can we step back and change our view of this moment from societal collapse to one that is instead moving forward? Is what we are seeing the death of the old, and beginning of something better? Polls have measured the shift of young people’s engagement and commitment to climate change, their suspicion of AI, their acceptance of LGBTQ+ issues. Many of our old leaders cannot speak knowledgeably about the latest technologies because they have fallen behind. Perhaps we are a moment of profound change where the old leaders fall away and the energy of the young (Mamdani, AOC) rises to meet the occasion. The fuel for this moment is truth, and it is breaking though. 

Robert N. Ward

Principal Horn ☼ San Francisco Symphony (ret.)

San Francisco Conservatory of Music (ret.)