Lately I’ve been deeply struck by the sense of helplessness that surrounds me. Between the utter listlessness of another Trump-Biden presidential race and the horror of the genocide in Gaza (as well as the hostage situation and the complicated histories there), so many people who’ve historically stayed engaged are just tapping out. Or—worst of all worlds—they continue to diligently gather information while slumping further and further into despair.
The puzzle I keep returning to is that, by and large, these are highly privileged people, and even those who are not privileged in the modern United States still have access to far more personal power and far more available choices than anyone else in human history. We are very, very far from being helpless, even in the global political situations described above. We’ve just been convinced that the actions we all theoretically know how to take1 could not possibly matter.
We’ve also been convinced that circumstances which make taking action dif…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Creaturely to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.