We’ve all seen those movies where some evil force—a person, a monster, an alien invasion, or an unstoppable blob—attacks the Earth and proceeds to maim, kill, and wreak havoc.

The story arc is always the same. We watch the destruction unfold for the first half of the film, sometimes longer, but eventually something happens to interrupt the chaos. Someone intervenes. The tide turns. Good confronts evil. Justice prevails. And we experience the satisfaction of seeing the villains defeated and the innocent protected.

I couldn’t sleep last night because I couldn’t stop thinking:

When is all of this greed, grifting, lying, and corruption going to stop?

When is something actually going to happen?

At what point do enough people decide they simply won’t tolerate it anymore?

When does the story arc finally turn and bring us back to some version of normality?

How long do we have to wait?

I’m talking primarily about what is happening in the United States, but the same patterns are emerging across much of the world. We are seeing the rise of authoritarian politics, attacks on democratic institutions, contempt for expertise and science, open misogyny, racism, and a willingness to excuse behaviour that would once have been considered morally unacceptable.

What troubles me most is not simply the behaviour of political leaders. It is the willingness of so many people to look the other way. It is as if someone has lifted the lid off a sewer and allowed all the rats to run free.

For years, prejudice, cruelty, conspiracy theories, and naked self-interest existed beneath the surface. They were there, but most people understood that such views belonged at the margins of society. Now they are spoken aloud, celebrated, and amplified.

Years ago, while travelling in India, I learned a lesson about what happens when we ignore what lies beneath the surface.

One afternoon, while staying in a very cheap hotel, I took a nap and was suddenly awakened by three large rats running across my body. They scratched at my neck as they scrambled over me. I woke up just in time. They had come up through the toilet, which in India is a hole in the bathroom floor, and they had found their way into my room.

Needless to say, I never forgot the experience.

What stayed with me wasn’t just the shock. It was the realization that there had always been a vast hidden world beneath my feet. The rats hadn’t suddenly appeared. They had always been there scurrying below.

After that incident, I became obsessive about closing bathroom doors and lowering toilet seats. To this day, I still do it.

The prejudice, dishonesty, corruption, and cruelty we are witnessing today did not suddenly emerge. Much of it was always there, hidden beneath the surface. The difference is that it now feels emboldened. It has been given permission to come out into the open. It has become normalized.

The question is: how long will we accept it?

Every story has a turning point. Every pendulum eventually swings back.

I hope we are approaching ours. I am waiting for something to happen.

Just as I was horrified enough by that experience in India to change my behaviour, I hope enough people become outraged by what they are seeing around them to say, “Enough.”

Because if we fail to confront what is emerging, we risk becoming accustomed to it.

And some things should never become normal. Let’s keep the rats in the sewers where they belong.

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