The Day Nobody Talked to Each Other
New York: September 23, 2025 became a perfect example of what happens when institutions refuse to communicate. Three incidents in New York showed how the absence of basic coordination creates chaos. The events weren’t random. They were predictable symptoms of a system where nobody talks to anybody.
Macron’s Traffic Jam
French President Emmanuel Macron was blocked by police officers when he sought to cross a New York street. They told him the road was closed to let a VIP motorcade pass. Macron fished out his phone and dialed his U.S. counterpart.
Think about this. The French president had to call Trump directly because no one coordinated traffic flow. Macron eventually walked 30 minutes through the city to his destination.
The diplomatic protocol team didn’t talk to NYPD. NYPD didn’t coordinate with Secret Service. Each agency worked in isolation.
Trump’s UN Technical Disasters
Trump encountered a series of technical mishaps involving a stopped escalator, a teleprompter failure and audio issues. An escalator came to an abrupt halt as Trump and First Lady got on.
Trump’s teleprompter did not work for the first portion of his speech. He was forced to read from paper for 15 minutes until the machine kicked in. These weren’t sabotage. They were communication failures.
Who’s Really to Blame?
The U.N. says a videographer from Trump’s delegation may have triggered the escalator’s safety mechanism. The UN said Trump’s team was to blame for the nonworking escalator and teleprompter. This reveals the core problem. Nobody coordinated beforehand. Trump’s team didn’t communicate with UN technical staff. UN staff didn’t brief Trump’s advance team.
Each side blamed the other after things went wrong.
The Pattern of Isolation
These incidents show institutional social poverty. Departments that should coordinate don’t even attempt communication. During UN General Assembly week, New York hosts world leaders annually. Yet basic logistics break down every time. Why? Because each agency operates like it’s the first time this has happened.
The Missing Conversations
Imagine if people had actually talked to each other beforehand. NYPD could have coordinated with diplomatic security about motorcade timing. UN technical staff could have walked through Trump’s requirements with his advance team. City traffic control could have shared alternate routes with all diplomatic missions. Instead, everyone worked in isolation until crisis forced desperate phone calls.
The Human Cost
Videos show Macron getting out of his vehicle, slightly annoyed but with a smile. The French president handled it gracefully. But the dysfunction was embarrassing for everyone involved.
World leaders shouldn’t need to make personal phone calls to solve basic coordination problems.
Institutional Prolixity
This connects to the broader communication problem. When institutions don’t talk regularly, they overcompensate during crises. After the incidents, everyone had elaborate explanations. Trump demanded investigation into alleged “triple sabotage.”
Multiple press statements. Detailed blame analysis. Complex theories about deliberate interference. But the real explanation was simple. Nobody communicated beforehand.
What This Reveals
These New York incidents weren’t about technology failures or security protocols. They were about communication culture.
Western institutions mirror Western social patterns. Compartmentalization replaces coordination. Each department stays in its lane. The result? Predictable chaos that everyone pretends is surprising.
The Simple Solution
The fix isn’t better technology or more security briefings. It’s basic communication.
Schedule coordination meetings before major events. Share contact information between agencies. Create simple check-in protocols. Most importantly, encourage people to actually talk to each other instead of hiding behind departmental boundaries.
Beyond New York
This pattern repeats everywhere in Western institutions. Hospitals where departments don’t coordinate. Schools where teachers and administrators don’t communicate. Corporations where divisions work in isolation. The absence of casual connection creates formal dysfunction.
The Deeper Lesson
When societies lose the habit of regular human communication, institutions lose the ability to coordinate effectively. The same social poverty that drives YouTube prolixity also drives institutional chaos.
People don’t know how to have simple conversations anymore. So complex systems break down over basic coordination failures.
The Real Comedy
The funniest part? Everyone acted surprised. As if three major communication failures in one day during a predictable annual event were somehow unexpected. The comedy wasn’t in the incidents themselves. It was in the collective pretense that this chaos was unusual rather than inevitable.
Conclusion
September 23, 2025 showed what happens when nobody talks to anybody. Traffic jams. Equipment failures. Diplomatic embarrassment. The solution exists. It’s called conversation.
But in a culture that has forgotten how to maintain casual human connection, even basic institutional coordination becomes impossible. The real question isn’t why these incidents happened. It’s why anyone thought they wouldn’t happen.
When communication dies, everything else breaks down. New York just provided a perfect example.