Ever keen to keep the readers of this esteemed organ up to date, I actually did some research before penning this end of year column. What, I wonder, will be the big trends of 2022?
A quick Google revealed that blue nail polish will be in vogue (according to Cosmopolitan, who should know), as will asymmetric body piercing (according to Bustle, which I’ve never heard of) and, inevitably, authenticity and purpose in business (according to almost everybody).
I’m sceptical about authenticity and purpose. For example, the only authentic thing about Donald Trump was his inauthenticity. As for purpose, it’s become the corporate equivalent of those Cub Scout badges I longed for as a kid. I have never been a good photographer - even though I won a badge saying I was - and, in the same way, many of the companies which claim to be working for the greater good are pulling a fast one. .
The American mattress maker which gave its bedding an eco-label it had invented itself was, at least, so brazen it was amusing, The net zero emission plan by Chevron, America’s second largest oil company, has its farcical aspects too although, as it is also the second largest corporate emitter of carbon dioxide, it is hard to raise a chuckle when you hear that it is considering become greener by powering its oil and gas drills with renewable energy. Why don’t the directors treat themselves to a violin on expenses so they can all fiddle while the Earth burns?
Sorry to be end the year on such a downer but, I suspect like most of you, I just find it harder to swallow all the nonsense we’re faced with. My dad, the presiding genius of Mole Graphics, used to say the world was “dumbing down”. One episode of East Enders was all it took to induce a profound, if fleeting, state of existential despair about the state of the nation. I shudder to think how we would regard the present unpleasantness.
My chief hope for 2022 - apart from Covid-19 becoming as manageable as the flu - is that we all have to put up with less bull**1t.