I look back over history and see that every system of social organization ever was rigged against the people at the bottom, and then I look further back into nature and see that nature is literally trying to kill you all day every day, and I just take it as par for the course.
Our current system is less rigged against me than would be literally any other system under which I might have lived at any point in the past. I’m more free and supported than almost any other human who has ever lived, and for that I’m grateful.
I guess you could say I deal with it via the deliberate choice to be grateful, and to ignore the people who think I’m foolish for being grateful.
My mental health is certainly better than it would be if I chose to be bitter and resentful of the facts of existence.
Being surrounded by hostile forces that want to exploit and eat me is just part of existence. I am also surrounded by forces that want to nurture and assist me. I focus on those.
The ideal is to be capable of fighting a war, and capable of laughing in easy joy at the same time. Why? Because existence is war, and war is dreary and miserable if it’s the only thing that exists.
Elie Wiesel wrote in Night about finding freedom while strapped down to a table being tortured by concentration camp guards. It’s hard to find a scenario in which a person is more fucked. But it was there that he discovered the freedom of his spirit. If he can be free in that situation, I can be free in this situation.
Quite frankly, a big part of managing the stress when looking at the macro-political situation and how that intertwines with the macro-econonics and fucks up the microeconomics of households, is to not dwell on it. Too much doomer content bringing you down? know when to stop consuming and do something else. There’s a point where you cannot change it and making yourself depressed thinking about it too much is just going to make your own life shittier.
I also work hard to find the best path to survive, thrive and live my best life. Sometimes that means taking some time to learn the rules of the game that’s set up so you don’t dive head first into the pitfalls that are setup for those who don’t pay attention to the rules. Learn more about the big scary words at play as you sign up for an insurance plan, and what they mean. Learn about interest (both on your debts and your funds) and how interest plays into your finances, how to budget and figure out what you can afford, and how to financially improve upon your previous choices that occurred either due to lack of knowledge or due to making the least bad decision available to you at a given point in time.
But also make sure to find joy and happiness in a bunch of different timescales to both be happier and improving yourself so that no matter how mundane your life is, you have sparks of joy to keep you always looking forwards to something:
- Small affordable indulgences, be that a yummy food like a small block of aged cheese, or maybe a small lego set or a small game. Whatever makes you happy that you wouldn’t normally spend on
- Take a moment to appreciate something in your environment. I like to take a minute to look at the stars every time I’m outside at night, but also actively take in the trees and patches of woodland and how they’re currently reacting to the weather. If you can keep a small plant, just checking in on your little potted plant every day can bring its own joy in caring for your little buddy
- Find a creative outlet, no matter how much you suck at it, just find something you can make that you enjoy making
- Pick something fun you can look forwards to at all times that’s just around the corner. A club that meets monthly to do a hobby you enjoy does well. I then try to also make sure to find some excuse to get together with friends and spend a little more money than I otherwise would every few months so its extra special and I can really look forward to those get togethers.
- Start exercising regularly. Your body was made to move, and making sure you’re actually using your body and pushing your muscles a bit 3-5 times a week is amazing for both your general health but also your mental health too. Take a walk, ride a bike, make a fool of yourself on a dance floor, struggle to do a pushup/pullup. It doesn’t have to be structured, just something to actually move your whole body throughout the week and actually use your muscles
TL;DR STOP DOOMSCROLLING AND GO POKE SOMETHING WITH A STICK…it might even be a little fun
I appreciate this comment.
I submit to it while kindling a fire inside. For the rest of the day escapism. Everyone is just doing escapism.
I don’t want to overstate this, but some liberation can come from within.
Yeah, we all have to play their game, but internalizing the values our sick society places on us is optional. Make peace with the things you alone cannot immediately change. Resist in the small ways you are able, find joy where you can, and do what you can for the people you care about. Free your mind and your ass will follow.
Every day is a step towards my plan leaving this country and going back to Korea
In EMS, there’s a saying: if you drop the baby, pick it up.
Dropping the baby is like the worst thing you can ever do, but for Christ’s sake, don’t just leave it on the ground, do something about it. I’ve gotten involved in local government. Local government is great because you can still affect change there, and you can affect change that can snowball into something bigger with other people in other local governments making those changes. I’m on the city’s bicycle commission, and I’m working with local organizations like the ‘Council for Leadership and Justice’ and ‘Strong Towns’ to try and make the world a better place than I found it. Is it futile? Sure feels like it sometimes, time will tell I guess, but the trying helps me feel better for a few reasons, not least of which because it puts me in contact with others who care enough to try too.
Exactly.
I’m probably generally more optimistic about the future than the average Lemmy users, but even if I were pessimistic about the broad big picture questions, I’d still have plenty of local bits of local optimism. I really enjoy the company of my friends and family. I’m excited about my kids growing into cool adults who will do good things, from the tiny and mundane (a piece of artwork, a joke that makes me laugh) to the medium (taking an interest in my interests) to the big stuff (making big moves to change the world for the better).
I can’t end poverty or hunger. But I can support the food bank in my neighborhood and volunteer/give to organizations that are doing good work at alleviating hunger and homelessness. And maybe feeding someone a single meal doesn’t change the systemic problem that made him rely on my charity, but you’d better believe that meal still makes a difference to him in that moment.
Same with getting local kids their school supplies, helping a neighbor raise funds to pay off some medical debt, getting someone work clothes so that they can go interview for a job, teaching people how to negotiate and organize for better pay, etc.
We have plenty of power, collectively. Let’s not waste it being miserable and unproductive.
In what way are you working with Strong Towns? I’ve gotten involved with local government too, but haven’t really connected with Strong Towns beyond espousing their principles.
A guy running a local chapter reached out to me because of a comment I left on a YouTube video. We’re collaborating on how to organize more people and push the city council to take aggressive measures like zoning reform, repealing parking minimums, robust public transit, comfortable bike lanes, etc.
Currently taking a sabbatical from giving a shit about anything.
Got assaulted, seriously injured, car got stolen, lost my job working at a non profit helping the homeless, became homeless, spent a year that way, racked up a whole bunch more injuries.
Managed to qualify for SSDI, got on a bus, rode halfway across the country in horrible agony to find a shithole I can afford to rent, with just the clothes I had on me.
Its been about a year now, doing my own physical therapy, slowly recovering.
Can’t afford actual physical therapy, couldn’t get to it anyway.
Maybe sometime next year I’ll be able to get my glasses replaced.
Maybe if I get to the point I can walk or use my wrist for more than 10 minutes at a time I’ll look into some kind of remote work… or just make a video game or something.
…
How do I deal with it?
Just keep living, one day at a time.
If you want to make a video game I’d be willing to help, I’ve started a few and have learned a lot of the ins and outs. I’m partial to godot myself
Maybe when I can actually use my wrist or sit in a chair for more than 30 minutes without extreme pain…
I don’t let them win over my soul. I’ll never believe that capitalism is good. I’ll never let them that money is more important than people. And if someday enough people believe the same as me that things start to change I’ll be there to help make that change happen.
Invest in people.
Barring that: move to somewhere that is better for investing in people.
Doing better with only a focus on money, within a capitalist framework, will absolutely challenge your morals and ethics from time to time. Investing time in people, and community in general, has no such downside. Also, you’ll need both to ascend Maslow’s Hierarchy and be a well-rounded and healthy person around here. Succeeding in this area will also shift your viewpoint away from purely financial matters, or worse yet, basing your self-worth on your financial value to the market.
Remember that the world used to be filled with feudalistic absolute-monarchist nations where the Emerperor/King always got away with doing immoral shit, and most people who worked for the monarch can fuck up your life with zero repercussions.
Today, at least sometimes the leaders can get punished.
South Korea just Impeached their president. And the president will likely get convicted and removed from office and go to prison, just as with one of the presidents before.
Brazil is now investigating their former President for an attempted coup.
The US isn’t there yet, but at least we tried. Eventually, the president will be held accountable, maybe not in 10 years, but eventually we’ll evolve out of this shit. The US had slavery, and got rid of it (for the most part). We had Jim Crow and got rid of that. It used to be only white male landowners could vote, and eventually Black Men, then Women, also got the right to vote. Progress happens even if it looks very slow.
Back then there was also no modern medicine, a small flu can kill you. If a family had 2 children in any country that’s even slightly developed, both children likely survive. But before modern medicine, you need like 8 children and maybe 2 of them will survive.
Back then there were no entertainment on demand, if you are bored, you are just bored. Now we can just go on Youtube, Netflix or whatever and have a billion things to watch.
Back then, you didn’t have a 40 hour work week, you were on a farm and had to constantly work. Any bad weather and crops died you’re starving. Or if it post industrial revolution, you could be at a factory with way longer hours and much worse conditions than today.
People think “this is so bad” but it was way worse before.
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Did I say something offensive? Sorry if I did.
I’ve been looking for a mutual aid organization to join and looking into what it takes to get a gun in my state. Bleak, I know lol
So I went through a very dark place a few years back. Anxiety, depression and PTSD led me to the conclusion that “life is hard and always will be and that in the whole of human history we are all insignificant”.
But with the help of a great therapist (and some meds) I was able to append “so I might as well have fun”.
So I try to find joy wherever I can. So yes to doing things, fight my cynical side, make friends, dress weird, dance, party, be my (weird fun happy) self, allocate zero fucks to the haters and all to love to the people that matter.
I still fight the system where I can, but mostly by trying to make other’s lives happier. Let the billionaires be rich miserable assholes, we’re too busy dancing slutty to care.
Smoke a lot of weed
Reading history books for greater context. Shit always finds a new flavor of fucked, apparently.
And drinking a boatload.
This can also backfire. It’s frustrating to see history repeating itself so clearly over and over again, while being utterly powerless to really change it.
It’s kind of like trying to cope with the reality of death
