I don't know if you read Robert Hubbell's substack, but he just hosted a forum on burnout for progressive leaders, and he quotes one of them telling a story about singing in a choir--everyone has to stop and breathe some time, but a note can be held as long as needed by the choir as a whole, while each individual takes the breathing break they need.
I struggle with this, too. I have to remind myself that, regardless of what happens, I'm one person. I know my reality and my limitations and I simply won't change things on my own, working full-time with all of my resources. (Resources which I would quickly lose because I'm now working full-time on attempting to save democracy rather than earning my income. Yes, some make money while attempting to save democracy, but there's only so many gigs in that realm.) Since I can't change things on my own working full-time, I need to give myself permission to stand down; to put things away for a bit and resume something akin to life in the Before Times when I didn't worry about our country descending into dictatorship, though arguably, I should have. My brief and tiny absence will have no overall effect on the trajectory of the nation. It's hard to do sometimes, but so welcome when it comes.
I hear ya. ItтАЩs like, what am I supposed to do about it? WeтАЩve seen this for eight years, and if voters put Trump back in Office, weтАЩll get whatтАЩs coming to us good and hard. There is no shortage of information on Trump. No one has an excuse to think heтАЩs anything other than what he is. All I can do is vote and what comes is what comes.
I know we look at the Weimar Germans and think How could they have elected that maniac? But itтАЩs like these sorts of things are inevitable. The illiberals win one time and itтАЩs game over. 2500 years, and the Greeks have never been proven wrong about the vulnerabilities in democracy.
True. I'm reading a great book called The Splendid and the Vile: a Saga of Churhill, Family and Defiance during the Blitz by Eric Larson. A large part of the US didn't want to fight fascism. Perhaps that segment is winning.
Even now a large portion doesnтАЩt want to provide the barest minimum of aid to Ukraine in a fight for its life against one of our biggest geopolitical foes. Against an illiberal authoritarian regime.
You're supposed to do the hard work of resisting. Conservatives bear no responsibility for the problem, and should be allowed to cowardly avoid fixing the problem. Or so I'm told on a daily basis.
Indeed. Athens had its internal turmoil for sure during its century or so fling with democracy, but it was really the plague and Sparta that sealed the deal against it.
I've been alarmed for the last eight and a half years, I don't know how much more alarm my body can handle.
I don't know if you read Robert Hubbell's substack, but he just hosted a forum on burnout for progressive leaders, and he quotes one of them telling a story about singing in a choir--everyone has to stop and breathe some time, but a note can be held as long as needed by the choir as a whole, while each individual takes the breathing break they need.
Thank you! That's very helpful.
Hubbell is great. He's a cheerleader every day for Dems.
That's a fantastic way of putting it. I need to take a deep breath.
I struggle with this, too. I have to remind myself that, regardless of what happens, I'm one person. I know my reality and my limitations and I simply won't change things on my own, working full-time with all of my resources. (Resources which I would quickly lose because I'm now working full-time on attempting to save democracy rather than earning my income. Yes, some make money while attempting to save democracy, but there's only so many gigs in that realm.) Since I can't change things on my own working full-time, I need to give myself permission to stand down; to put things away for a bit and resume something akin to life in the Before Times when I didn't worry about our country descending into dictatorship, though arguably, I should have. My brief and tiny absence will have no overall effect on the trajectory of the nation. It's hard to do sometimes, but so welcome when it comes.
Thank you for what you are doing. I'm retired, and trying to decide how best to use my time and resources in the coming year.
I hear ya. ItтАЩs like, what am I supposed to do about it? WeтАЩve seen this for eight years, and if voters put Trump back in Office, weтАЩll get whatтАЩs coming to us good and hard. There is no shortage of information on Trump. No one has an excuse to think heтАЩs anything other than what he is. All I can do is vote and what comes is what comes.
I know we look at the Weimar Germans and think How could they have elected that maniac? But itтАЩs like these sorts of things are inevitable. The illiberals win one time and itтАЩs game over. 2500 years, and the Greeks have never been proven wrong about the vulnerabilities in democracy.
True. I'm reading a great book called The Splendid and the Vile: a Saga of Churhill, Family and Defiance during the Blitz by Eric Larson. A large part of the US didn't want to fight fascism. Perhaps that segment is winning.
Even now a large portion doesnтАЩt want to provide the barest minimum of aid to Ukraine in a fight for its life against one of our biggest geopolitical foes. Against an illiberal authoritarian regime.
It's shocking.
You're supposed to do the hard work of resisting. Conservatives bear no responsibility for the problem, and should be allowed to cowardly avoid fixing the problem. Or so I'm told on a daily basis.
Indeed. Athens had its internal turmoil for sure during its century or so fling with democracy, but it was really the plague and Sparta that sealed the deal against it.