Whether in London or Melbourne thinking about the world and what is happening can make you feel pretty gloomy. We can feel powerless when seeking change and gloom at the cruelty of those who use their military or political might to punish innocent children, women and men.

Whether it’s the cruelty of rockets that indiscriminately take the lives of people in Gaza or the Ukraine, or the cruelty of an economy that punishes the disabled, single mothers, and the vulnerable in Britain or Australia – cruelty evokes gloom as it appears to be so overwhelmingly in control.

Given this reality it feels really twee to talk about the TV show Glee. After all what could a stupid Hollywood style musical series aimed squarely at a teenage audience contribute to the world, other than a few minutes of mindlessness? It seems as offensive to talk about Glee in a world of gloom as it would be to have someone whistling gleefully at a funeral.

A wheelchair-bound nerdy geek, a large transgender Afro-American, a bunch of testosterone fueled male losers, a couple of cheerleaders (for goodness sake!), an ex-male stripper, gay people and several spacy and mixed up women live as outcasts within a cruel high school system that rewards the powerful and pisses scorn on the losers. A microcosm perhaps of the world one might suggest, except for the exaggerated character portrayals.

Or perhaps when you consider the exaggerated characters currently in power wielding cruelty around the world, even more so a microcosm of the world.

The peculiar mix of characters in Glee sing songs with words like:

Feeling downcast, like an outcast

Underdogs, it’s time to bite back

We are,

Stronger from every scar,

Brighter than any star,

We’re the outcast

There’s nothing you can say

To blow our dreams away

We rise above the fray

We’re the outcast

I’d rather be outrageous than

Just another plain day

I’d rather be a rainbow than

Just some shade of grey

So what could a stupid teenage song say to the powerful men and women who are the architects of cruelty around the world? I mean we need think-tanks and policy papers and big ideas and politicians and very important people to change the cruel world we live in – not just a silly song. We need to cultivate people in positions of power to effect change – not the outcasts and certainly not the underdogs.

We are in the system and we are not outcasts. We choose to live in the gloom as insiders. We avoid the scars. We live with the grey. We sit under the fray. We dismiss outsiders (especially if they are seeking the safety of asylum).

But I must admit I felt a tinge of glee when I sang along with the song. When you hear the music as well as the words it kind of catches on. I started to tap along to the song. And then eventually a hint of rainbow began to colour away the grey.

My plain day got a shake up as the outcasts and the underdogs sang about resilience – nothing could blow their dreams away. The cruelty of the system would not bring them down or make them give up. And words like courage and persistence came into my head. And then before I knew it I was up and dancing to the music, a dance of defiance in the face of the gloom. I was dancing with the outcasts and it felt right.

The episode finished. It was called ‘dreams’. Reality confronted me. Serious gloom is everywhere. That’s why I figure I might need to change my ideas about changing the world. I need to find more outcasts. Empowered nobodies who can change the world and make it a less cruel place. I embraced my glee in the midst of gloom.