A question for my activist friends...

[pat]

and my friends on the left generally...

How do you avoid despair? How do you not get consumed by the rage?

I find myself sinking into sort of a cynical apathy, that looks at each new outrage and says, "So what else is new?" It's not that I don't care, just that I feel beaten down.

I know that for evil to triumph it only takes good people to do nothing, but how do you keep from that?

Comments

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

There are many people in the world with good basic values who don't know things, who maybe haven't been able to learn stuff you and I might know.

Every now and then I try to do a little mentoring, find teaching moments, without being a pain, you know?

Some of the time it has worked.

If I have helped make more activists who go on to do this, it's a snowball effect, you see?

My parents made it through WW11 and the McCarthy era, I figure I can tolerate the lousy place we're in now a bit longer.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

It's a combination of two things:

1. Being aware that things always seem this bad. Especially in American history, it's always doomsday. Somehow knowing it's just one of many doomsdays takes the load off.

2. Being aware of how much is so good right now, especially for you as an individual. the old accentuate the positive bit. I mean when you think of how good you have it compared to so many people, how could you not have hope and feel like you can help make things better for everyone.

At least that's how I tend to look at it. Even though things are bad and getting worse, I ate today. I have a roof over my head and shoes on my feet so it's not like things are all that bad, at least for me. Plus, and I think this might be more of an agnostic/atheist thing, since this is the only lifetime I know of and I don't know when it's going to be over, I've got an enormous incentive for trying to do good and be happy doing it. I can't fix it later on, I can't do any kind of penance, I can't sort it out in a future life, and I can't count on heaven to be my reward. It's hard not to be cheery and optimistic with that view if for no other reason than just practicality.

I know what you mean

[oakdragon.livejournal.com]

I went through a bit of post-election depression at the end of last year. I had another bout of outrage when listening to the Clinton biography (unabridged) and was reminded of the outrages of those years all over again.

Perhaps listening to audio books in general on the commute rather than NPR has avoided some of the feelings of powerless outrage and confusion regarding what the general public seems to ignore, but it's only avoidance. I'm also not ignoring completely--I just take it in smaller doses.

The main thing is waiting for the pendulum to swing (after the total confusion that it didn't last November). I must have some hope that things will turn back to the progressive side--if not, I would get caught up in the despair.

[mnfiddledragon.livejournal.com]

for me, it's taking each day as it comes, and focusing on the things that are truly important in my day to day life...ie., getting up, making it to work, snuggling and playing and paying attention to my kids. Making sure I get some downtime.

Is this helpful? Who knows?

[daltong.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I take the ostrich approach. I tune out a lot of what's going on. If something penetrates that is really, really, really egregious, and I'm not having a highly disabled day, I call or write my congresspeople.

Mostly I feel helpless, and I don't have much energy to spend anyway, so I try not to think about it and hope that general inertia will save the day. (i.e., a president's decisions are sometimes overturned by the next president, or they're unfunded, or they become irrelevant as time and new laws go along.) Yes, I know this is very "silence=death" of me. But I'm literally out of spoons most days just dealing with myself. It's not that I'm apathetic--I really sincerely cannot find the spoons. If someone told me something very, very easy and quick that I could do that would help turn the tide, I'd consider it.

I get "action alerts" from, for example, the ACLU. Unfortunately, those alerts just say to contact one's congresspeople. They do not include the name of the relevant bill, and I don't think it makes sense to write without speaking of specific legislation, and most of the time I cannot stay on the computer long enough to look it up myself (I can't find legislation info easily on the Senate and House sites).

So that's my defensive answer. The way I deal with not being able to make a difference is by not listening or, if I do listen, noting the information and keeping my emotions out of it. Now that's a specific skill I've learned the hard way.

Oh, wait, I have another helpful hint. If my emotions do get triggered, I learned that the really bad feelings can be attributed to a nearly instantaneous (on a human scale, anyway) reaction involving the amygdala and a flood of neurotransmitters. It's like magic, but it works for me: if I deliberately cut off any thought about the trigger issue--and that means really cutting it off, and cutting new thoughts off as they perk their sly little heads up--and focus on something else for at least 10 minutes, then I can think about the issue without all the anger and stress. If you get triggered again, I suppose you go through the cycle again. I have personal factors that help with this process that I'll tell you in email if you are interested, but I think it's true for owners of the human brain in general.

[firecat]

I don't know if I count as an activist but--

I avoid despair and getting consumed by rage by paying attention when I start feeling a bit depressed and annoyed, and going and doing something else instead before they can escalate into despair and rage.

I do look at many new outrages and say "So what else is new?" because I understand I can't do everything. I choose my battles.

Some of the things I do, I do because they make me feel good as well as because they make a difference.

I sometimes make an effort to remember things that are positive in my life and in my immediate environment.

I sometimes think about some of the things I know about history and remind myself that there have always been people suffering and people committing outrages, and there have always been improvements and devolutions.

I know myself well enough now to know that if I take a break from doing stuff, I'll get back to it eventually.

[vokzal.livejournal.com]

Try to do the occasional useful thing to rail against the system; give money to people who are doing it if I can; otherwise general support.

Remember that its a different lifestyle in Europe (and probably other countries). Wish I could be there.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

I keep an eye out for good news to counterbalance the bad, and I try to look for the positive parts of even the bad things. I look at the good things that I've accomplished in my area, and I try to keep up hope for all my fellow citizens.

Don't obsess over the negative headlines that you see every day; it'll just drag you into that suck of cynicism and apathy. Don't let rage drive you; instead, be moved by love and by concern. Set "perserverance" as a goal, and live so as to set an example that your way works, too.

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

I track the little victories. I pay attention to the grassroots groups who are winning little local battles all over the place. I take comfort in how many people are paying attention. I take the five minutes to write that e-mail or make that phone call about an issue. I remember that all of us doing our little bit *does* make a difference. I keep track of issues I've put lots of time and energy into in the past (like the Alaskan Native Corporations working on FSC certification for their logging and other forestry related industries and salmon farming - things that are moving in positive directions).

Sadly, I also avoid large parts of the news, because I simply don't have the energy to put into the anger it raises in me.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Hope is a potent drug.

I have faith that reason can prevail.

I keep my powder dry.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention that much of my actual activism is subversive... getting alerts from groups I oppose, and then supporting the causes and people they attack. That makes me feel I am actually doing something.

When the supported person comes out swinging, I get rewarded.

TK

[frankenboob.livejournal.com]

I stopped watching news/reading the newspaper years ago. I figure that there isn't a lot I can do about the widespread crap in the news -- and I don't need the stress. I do my part at the local level...

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Long photo trips tend to be good medicine for me. Sometimes I, and many people, need a vacation from activism. We see this issue a lot at Impact, where the work is certainly enormously directly rewarding but can also be really difficult to stay centered around.

I have taken LJ vacations at times for this reason, too.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Oh I try to get something simple started for the holidays

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