How do you cope with the state of the world today?
Everything just seems so out of control. The US seems to be tearing itself apart. The world is on fire. We seem to be going backwards when it comes to freedom and human rights. We’ve turned our backs on each other. How do you cope with all this without just giving up?
Gotta be Nine Inch Nails! I’ve seen them twice and now Atticus is officially part of NIN with Trent they count as a proper band rather than a solo artist! ;)
I think I oghtta give them a proper go. Always liked their hits, and bands typically have way better shit than the radio has time for. Thanks for answering.
Ooooh yeah don’t bother with Ghosts. He’s been going for ~40yrs and his Ghosts stuff is more like his creative common free music he gives to people.
I started on With Teeth album but his top albums are often considered to be Downward Spiral and Fragile.
If I was you I’d listen to Downward Spiral, the Fragile then With Teeth. After that maybe try Pretty Hate Machine which is slightly more dark-poppy-shynth-wave.
Part of it is the mantra “out of my control, out of my concern.” Or “not my circus, not my monkeys.” That doesn’t mean I don’t care. It means I do what I can do, and try not to despair about what I can’t change.
Ingenuity: The helicopter drone that flew on Mars for the last 2.5 years when it was expected to fly just a few times. It is the embodiment of human achievement. Of our minds in this great unknown. I get so wrapped up in politics and war and social issues, then if I think of Ingenuity it scales all these issues down and makes me feel like a fool for that last period of time I’ve been lost. Science and engineering to further the incredible human story of understanding is everything and that is how I am able to reset where we are in this and where we can go.
Things do seem bad, things do need fixing. My advice is to pick one singular part of the world you want to improve and figure out how to fix it. Something like abolishing prison labor or environmentalism. It needs to be something you can make a noticeable dent in, where you can see your own contribution to the effort.
Don’t change tack every time something new like Isreal-Hamas or the scuffle at the US-Mexico border happens. You picked that one thing to fix, remember? And unless you plan on going down to the border with a gun, how do you plan on making a real difference? If you can’t make a difference, why let it bother you?
Also it’s good to have perspective by comparison but life happens in the moment to moment. If people are reporting feeling worse then that is current state and that is what matters.
I read a copy of my local, still-Independent newspaper free every morning with digital access to my library.
I vote in every local, State and Federal election.
I vote Progressive in the Primaries and Democrat in the General.
I say ‘Yes’ to any/all referendums that Tax the wealthy.
That’s about all I can do without financially impacting my family or my career. If it was feasible I’d maybe even start attending my Town Hall meetings just to get a barometer reading on my local Council Members.
Crazy thing is I’m 36yo, and sanity checks have required me to act like a 60yo from the 90s… minus the ‘got mine’ Boomer attitude.
Best advice I have is to reach out in your local community to help where you can.
Doesn’t matter if it’s a municipal food bank, a church running a shelter, a charity helping battered spouses, or some kind of a mutual aid group getting people caught up on the bills… just working with others to help fix what you can does an amazing amount for your mental health. Volunteer to help shelter and feed migrants or the homeless. There’s after school programs for kids in single parent households or who’s parents have to work too much to be there for them. Cities across the US have citizens councils where local problems are brought and attempts to solve them are made.
I know it all sounds cliche and it’s all a bandaid on the bigger picture’s problems but, in terms of your own mental health it can do wonders… plus I guarantee groups local to you need an extra set of hands on a regular basis. When bad things are going around, we start to worry… when the bad things are enormous and out of any semblance of our control we think we can do nothing. That’s not true, you can do something, just on a local or regional scale. Reach out and offer to help in any way you can.
To be clear I hate religion but wisdom is where you find it.
The world Sidrattha (the Buddha) lived in is more horrible than anyone alive can imagine, except maybe North Koreans. In a culture where you were legally allowed to beat an untouchable they let their shadow pass on you, in a culture where the penalty for a slave caught praying was to have their tongue ripped out. In this world he taught a message of the inherit goodness and inner strength of humanity. His last spoken words were to remind people that no one needed him and they should work on themselves with diligence.
Now if he could see our potential in that hellscape I think we can manage to see it. And no I don’t think you or anyone else should become a Buddhist.
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