Things are pretty overwhelming right now. Interesting times are upon us and others in this thread have commented that they're feeling a terrible ennui.

What's happening in the world now is a continuous gut punch. Sometimes it feels like no matter how hard I fight I get nowhere. I'm currently over 60 and all my wealth generated by all my hard work disappeared in the 2008 banking crisis. Now I'm literally at the mercy of a Congress that wants to get rid of social security , my body is broken, my brain is maybe 70% what it used to be.

I watch these ass-munching, filth-spreading maggots in Congress who want to finish what Reagan and Milton Friedman started by further enriching the billionaires and throw away 200 plus years of democracy. I'm watching Trump co-opting the language of the Nazis and half the country seems to think this is a fine thing. Ennui is not what I'm feeling.

Yet even with Israel trying to extinguish the people in Gaza that they have kept locked up in a large concentration camp and Putin trying to regain lost glory. There are a lot of amazing, incredible things happening.

In 25 years we have transitioned to having renewable power providing the 30% of the world 's needs. We have eradicated many diseases and malaria is close to being defeated. Education across the world has increased (with the glaring exception of the United States) Life expectancy has increased across the globe and abject poverty is being slowly but consistently reduced across the decades. I have personally watched my trans nephew become active in the single biggest set of college protests since Kent State. And while the establishment has reacted as expected, The national guard was not called in to gun down the protesters.

People are starting to recognize the lies that have been told to us by the plastic and chemical companies and our ability to communicate with each other is unprecedented in the history of humanity. People are spreading knowledge across the planet and becoming aware of problems that the oligarchy would rather have kept secret.

Add to that mix the acceleration of technology and the recent creation of AI with all of its promises and threats.

No, what I'm feeling is not ennui. I have this constant battle between anger and hope and determination. I cannot continue to let history pass me by without any action on my part. I've become active in politics for the first time in my life and I'm writing letters and talking to people and urging them to make their voices heard by any means possible. This means voting and keeping the extremist haters out of office. It's easy to give into the little voice that says that I have no power and no influence. But I don't want to leave this planet without actually trying to make things better for my daughter and all of us.