1. Nobody really called 2016. I predicted that two of the UN, US, France and the UK would be run by women by 2017 - I just got the wrong two. It has been a logic defying, irrational year, in which three acronyms have now officially entered the dictionary – LOL, OMG and WTF.  And 2016 is the new normal. 

2. We are in new and uncertain terrain. The beginning and end of chapters in history books are pretty arbitrary. But 2016 is the end of the chapter that started in 1989, maybe even 1945. It may be the end of the American Age. It could mark the (hopefully temporary) resignation of America as the most influential driving force for liberty ever. There is a vacancy for leader of the free world. We haven’t reached the end of history. We have not had the last world war, nor reached a plateau where everyone agrees that liberal democratic values are as good as it gets. As Buzz Lightyear says, this isn’t flying, it is falling with style. Just without the style. 

3. We are in the West in an Age of Distrust. Authority is another devalued currency. The UK parliamentary vote on Syria in 2013 was rejected because Iraq had destroyed confidence in the foreign policy establishment. Many rejected staying in the EU because MPs expenses, the banking crisis and EU mismanagement had destroyed confidence in Westminster, the Square Mile and Brussels. Ironically for a tycoon and TV personality, Trump is a rejection of the establishment and mainstream media.

4. We have been reminded that history rhymes. After economic downturns, nations turn inwards at the moment they should look outwards (and this was of course happening before Trump). They become nationalist when they should be internationalist. I now understand why we spent so much time at school studying the Weimar Republic. (And, an obvious point that bears repeating amid all this flux, we now need Germany to be a vital bastion against far right extremism in the West). 

5. The flux of 2016 is just the initial implications of the internet. What we do as humans, and how we do it, is changing at a faster pace than any time in history. Look at the impact of the printing press and scale it up. There will be many losers. Governments will find it harder to connect with citizens. We will be better connected but less well informed. We better mind all those gaps. 

6. We need to get out of our echo chamber. I only realized today that my Twitter timeline has no Trump supporters on it - maybe that’s a sign I’m pretty closed minded too. One of the ironies of the final 24 hours of the campaign was seeing Clinton’s campaign singing along to Livin’ On a Prayer. When I fear Gina and Tommy voted Trump. 

7. There is a silver lining: more good people will now become activists. Our ancestors left us a set of ideas for moments like this, all there in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. Those ideas are stood blindfolded and hands tied in front of the 21st Century’s walls, wondering if they will hear the first shot. We have to defend the progress and freedoms we took for granted with greater urgency and passion. Only then can we de-weaponise intolerance in future elections. 

8. In the 21st century it is easier to destroy than to build. If America changes tack on climate change, the life expectancy of the next generation just got shorter. We need to better equip them with curiosity, creativity and courage. And kindness. Let's not forget kindness.

9. Certainty is dangerous. If in doubt, watch Jacob Bronowski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXwj4jMnWZg. 

10. See number 1. Draw your own conclusions.