![](https://i0.wp.com/www.neweconomy.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NEJ-Book-Review.jpg?resize=480%2C480&ssl=1)
James Mumford’s ‘Vexed’, Reviewed
If you had to pick a defining characteristic of the year 2020, you could do worse than nominate polarisation – the division of people into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions/beliefs. Everywhere across the Western World, deep splits are entrenching on fundamental issues of public interest: from climate change and clean energy, to racial equality and public policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, to immigration and borders. Derision and distrust are the modus operandi of those seeking to engage across political lines, and common ground is becoming harder and harder to find.