"I'm a believer in the long arc, too, with the caveat that the arc didn't bend itself. My hope comes from the work. The opposite of hope is cynicism, hopelessness, which paralyzes us. As Rebecca Solnit wrote, hope is the commitment to the future that makes our present in habitable. "
Things seem so terrible right now that it's hard to believe anything we do can make a difference. But that's another one of the lessons about social dilemmas
That is, when you think nothing can be done (like in the tragedy of the commons, if you're certain everyone else is sneaking in an extra grazing animal or two, and that the commons will be overgrazed and you're doomed) it's easy to decide it doesn't matter. And that you should get what you can while you can.
In other words, you become part of the problem.
There are so many things I'm mad about, and I'm not really sure what I can do to make a difference. But giving up and deciding its hopeless doesn't actually help.
Change doesn't happen by magic, and we all have to do our part. (I just have to keep an eye out for what my part may be.)
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