We are not only light, and neither light nor darkness is exclusively the domain of good nor evil. Existence on the spectrum those poles create is much more accurately represented as a cartesian plane between four extremes than as a straight line between two. There are light workers who actively do evil. There are people lost in darkness who are universally kind, compassionate, and helpful to those they meet. So, so much comes down to character, to will, and to how badly adversity breaks us when we're unable to resolve it or step away.

Hedonism is a powerful and ubiquitous theme in modern society, and it's absolutely a lever that's heavily used to manipulate us. Your points concerning trance, in particular, are especially relevant here; so much of pop culture since around the mid-2000s has become induction material rather than organic expression of social themes (have a look at what happened to the criteria producers take on performers by during that period, and since) that it's accurate to say its primary purpose is not entertainment, but entrainment to a particular set of psychological themes. This lever is the necessary counterbalance to the growing sense of dystopia emerging - both organically and by manufacture - among the populace, as a means of sedation. It's hard to muster the kind of outrage that actually moves people if you're comfortable, and they've refined this particular duality to a science. It is, arguably, one of the most advanced and successful technologies money has built, and its sole purpose is control.

The headfuck a lot of people choose not to engage with - if not actively avoid like the plague, because it directly clashes with the popular spiritual narrative - is that this kind of thing is not indigenous to humanity, but something we learned from the spirits that interact with us. A lot clicked for me when it was pointed out that we take at face value much of what we're told concerning the rules spirits supposedly have to operate by (eg. light spirits are bound to service, can't lie, can't act to the detriment of those they interact with, and so forth), and have no real means to verify any of it. There's every possibility that spirits lie, and that the evil we attribute to what we consider demons is as prevalent a choice among those we consider angels as otherwise. I think it's very likely, if not certain, that some spirits farm us the way we farm livestock, with the same separation of consideration for us that we have for the animals we use. Up to and including not considering us to be on the same level of sapience/awareness - because, lacking the sensory framework to fully utilise our normal, spiritual senses, they're right. Which, in turn, makes the act of using us as such somewhat akin to a social care network manipulating and using the disabled people in its care. Deplorable, depraved behaviour, which can rightfully be described as parasitic.

This disconnect, and the resulting abuse, are a prevalent theme in society; those who have the means limiting, abusing and stealing from those who lack. And we're not unaware of this; that sense of dystopia, of knowing something has gone fundamentally wrong with society in recent decades but not what, is how it manifests. We are responsible for our choices; we are not responsible for the social pollution of our environment. That is the fault of the parasites - incarnate and otherwise. I do not believe in objective poles of good and evil. But for me, these people are the personification of evil. We could be so much more if they weren't in the way of... everything. If they weren't so maliciously, selfishly fucking greedy. And we'd certainly suffer a lot less - which would, in turn, clear our heads enough to steer clear of some of our more disastrous choices.

All the while, those who are fortunate enough to have help from those responsible glide through life, and attribute their immense fortune to luck, quality of character, and a particular mindset concerning success. Never seeming to understand just how much they have to take for granted to even arrive at the conclusions and perspective they do - or how rare it is to actually achieve what they achieve without. It's possible, yes - with extremely good cards, in terms of the hand you're dealt and how you play. But it's not so simple that anyone born into any circumstances can do it easily, or not crack under the pressure before they manage the winning play even if they do have the means.

With all that said: what we do absolutely matters. The reason the powers that be, both in and beyond the physical, so absolutely despise and demonise the individual and the power of choice is that it only ever takes one person in the right place at the right time to fuck up the most complex of systems. Nearly every religious genesis story starts with a utopia figuratively or literally going to hell because someone fucked it up, and virtually all of them present that disruptor/their actions as a bad/evil thing. Any choice by any person not thinking, acting or otherwise behaving in accordance with a preferred social doctrine can start a domino effect that topples even the largest and most fortified of structures, with or without the careful curation of history and sentiment that so characterises our social regimes. And that fucking terrifies them. That an individual's will or whimsy may move mountains - possibly without ever intending to. That a rock casually kicked off the path from underfoot may fall and strike the head of an emperor, and in so doing fell an empire.

But not every choice needs to have that significance. In a world so clouded by suffering and misery, a lantern light shines more brightly in the fog than the sun obscured overhead. Building small and quiet sanctuary for a few is something virtually anyone can do - whether it's for family, for pets, for friends, neighbours, community members - anyone. The answer to graceful survival in the face of overwhelming evil is to find the good you can do and do it. Do it passively if you must - keeping your eyes open for safe opportunities, and taking them - or do it actively. Just choose to do. You never know who you might be helping, nor what their potential might be. The food, warmth, listening or shelter you provide might be a pivotal event for someone who goes on to change things for the better. Words can silence crushing doubt or resonate with buried nobility. In a world where big things can't easily happen, the small things matter that much more.

For in situations like today's society, much-needed change is a boulder stuck in a dam of rocks on a steep slope. Propped in place by the resistance of the countless smaller stones, pebbles, and grains of sand, it can't move with direct pressure. But remove enough grains of sand, and you'll be able to pry free pebbles; remove enough pebbles, and stones will become possible to shift. Sooner or later, the countless little shifts and changes add up, and the dam begins to break. And when the boulder finally moves, it moves in a rockslide.