To the extremists of the world, from a “moderate”. You often pillory us for not taking a side, for not caring enough. For not having the balls to speak up. Where is our voice, you ask, when the man blows himself up at a concert? Where are we, you ask, when the man shoots 49 people dead at a mosque.

Here we are, the silent majority, watching as a world implodes in a frenzy of acronyms, intolerance, self-righteousness, and fear. Here we are, witnessing your blind alignment to clay-footed, leaden-minded politician after politician, intent on widening the splits and riding the populist waves. Here we are, seeing a cynical press press your buttons to push you to shriller heights.

Here we are, interested in your views, and thinking them a little curious, keeping our pet dogma to ourselves but performing a million mundane acts of kindness every day. Here we are, children of Earth’s history, able to appreciate a reality without erasing it, able to discuss a point of view without being offended by it, knowing that millions of years of evolution and ancestry makes you the imperfect human being you are.

Here we are, appreciating the beauty in the world and knowing that we’ve evolved for more than just scrabbling around in the mud; a precious, rare, curious, brave species, clinging on to the thinnest margins of existence on a tiny raft of a planet in a vast Cosmos.

So march if you must, pull it all down if you must, blow it up, wear a hood and sieg heil if you must. But pick your battle. Make sure you’re a force for good in the world, and not just satisfying your own need for validation and belonging.

Because when you’ve burnt it to the ground, we’ll be here, moderates of every shade, ready to pick it up, put it back together and carry on.