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Fight the hopelessness
5 months ago
Alioth FoxPlease read my terms of service before approaching me for a commission!Commission status, prices, and offerings can be found here. A thing that I've heard over and over the last few years - in moments of both anger and despair - is "Protesting/calling my congresspeople/etc. is pointless, they just ignore it" or "My vote doesn't matter. I can't make any difference."
They WANT you to feel like it's all pointless. It's not.
You can't do it all. That "5 calls a day" thing? I'm sure there are some dedicated folks doing that. But I know most of you aren't. I'M certainly not. Those protests every weekend? I don't go to all of them, and I doubt most of you do either. But that doesn't mean that none of it matters. When you get people screaming on social media saying "Y'all need to be doing x, y, z," that doesn't mean that EVERYONE has to do EVERYTHING. You CAN'T do everything. But what you CAN do is SOMETHING. Maybe you can't make five calls every day - but maybe you CAN send one email a week. There's SOME meaningful action that every single person can take (actually meaningful - I don't mean posturing on social media or "spreading awareness" or whatever the current in-vogue way of saying "pretending to care but actually doing nothing" happens to be). And something is better than nothing.
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten in my life was someone saying "If it's worth doing at all, it's worth half-assing." It was originally applied to creative endeavors, but it absolutely applies here too. Can't make five calls? Send one email. Can't donate $100? Donate $5. One very important phrase within leftist circles (often attributed to Karl Marx but its actual origin is unclear): "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." That doesn't just apply to an economic model - it's an important part of thinking communally: do what you can. Those of us who are Americans - even self-described leftists - have a rugged, stubborn, ingrained sense of individuality, and it's hurting us here, because we feel like if we can't do it all, we've failed. Worse, because we feel like we'll fail, we decide there's no point in trying.
And we can't do that.
They WANT you to feel like it's all pointless. It's not.
You can't do it all. That "5 calls a day" thing? I'm sure there are some dedicated folks doing that. But I know most of you aren't. I'M certainly not. Those protests every weekend? I don't go to all of them, and I doubt most of you do either. But that doesn't mean that none of it matters. When you get people screaming on social media saying "Y'all need to be doing x, y, z," that doesn't mean that EVERYONE has to do EVERYTHING. You CAN'T do everything. But what you CAN do is SOMETHING. Maybe you can't make five calls every day - but maybe you CAN send one email a week. There's SOME meaningful action that every single person can take (actually meaningful - I don't mean posturing on social media or "spreading awareness" or whatever the current in-vogue way of saying "pretending to care but actually doing nothing" happens to be). And something is better than nothing.
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten in my life was someone saying "If it's worth doing at all, it's worth half-assing." It was originally applied to creative endeavors, but it absolutely applies here too. Can't make five calls? Send one email. Can't donate $100? Donate $5. One very important phrase within leftist circles (often attributed to Karl Marx but its actual origin is unclear): "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." That doesn't just apply to an economic model - it's an important part of thinking communally: do what you can. Those of us who are Americans - even self-described leftists - have a rugged, stubborn, ingrained sense of individuality, and it's hurting us here, because we feel like if we can't do it all, we've failed. Worse, because we feel like we'll fail, we decide there's no point in trying.
And we can't do that.
When things get worse that'll be what people lean in, and that'll be what people want to build up and protect.
Of course, that's easier said than done. I wish you luck comrade.