You may not be much interested in politics, but politics – to borrow from the famous dictum on war by Leon Trotsky – is most definitely interested in you. With land acknowledgements to stand up for, rainbow-coloured sidewalks to stride over, garbage to sort and slogans like “Elbows up!” to recite, politics in today’s world is virtually inescapable. But is there any point in even trying? David Solway argues that the answer is an emphatic “Yes”. In a transcendent essay that ranges from idyllic Aegean islands to crumbling 19th-century communes, Solway paints a vivid portrait of the nature and meaning of apolitical life in its full sense, charting its evolution and blind alleys in literature, art and real-world attempts – and issuing a rallying cry for its centrality in building and, he still hopes, saving the greatest civilization the world has ever known.