Preserve your sanity
If coping with news overload is becoming a challenge, James Fallows recommends an essay by Degenerate Art writer Andrea Pitzer. In “Minding the Gap,” she emphasizes that there is a “difference between being aware of or criticizing what’s happening and taking action.” Action not only beats despair, it staves off despair.
“It’s possible to be aware of the bad acts underway without letting them paralyze you,” Pitzer advises. “Instead, let each day’s events remind you how important it is to do something, and that publicly doing your part can help turn the tide.”
The “publicly” part is important. We’ll come back to that.
It’s great if you keep up with your favorite pundits, legislators and lawyers. “But in our society as it exists today,” Pitzer continues, “I think there’s a real danger among the general population of mistaking online engagement itself for action.”
Pitzer warns:
The danger for the left now is to get caught up in critiques of those who are actually doing things, in which the people doing the critiquing will mistake their contribution for something useful. At this stage, facing a closing window for outcomes without significant increase in state violence, putting your weight into the societal shift we need is far more valuable.
Much of that will take the form of small actions in your community. And that shift might be easier than you imagine.
Fallows adds:
Perhaps you’ll not be surprised to hear that she ends up with an exhortation to do something, right now, at the local level. (For instance, at food banks—as grocery prices soar, and federal aid is cut off.) I found it heartening to read someone who doesn’t have all the answers but is wrestling with the same questions I do.
Boiler-plate advice from Indivisible and other activist groups is that you write or call your representatives multiple times a week. Fine. But none of your neighbors see that. They need to see resistance.
There are two key takeaways from the major intersection protests I’m engaged in 4-5 times a week. (The one pictured at the top is the largest.)
First, it feels good to be doing something more than screaming at your TV, and doing it with friends reinforces the effect. It takes introverts outside of their comfort zones, sure, but it’s easier in a crowd and it’s empowering.
Second, neighbors still putting in their nine-to-five need you out there. (The group at the top is mostly retirees; we have the time.) You are not the only ones losing sleep and grinding your teeth over ICE raids and the president’s mania. The smiles and honks and waves and thumbs-up say you are lifting spirits that need lifting. (I play dance music.) The occasional middle fingers let you know you’ve made a Trump supporter’s ride home less enjoyable (if you’re into that kind of thing).
At a corner where I went solo with a “GRAB HIM BY THE | EPSTEIN FILES“ sign:
The response, especially from women, was loud and vigorous. There were not only horn toots, waves and thumbs-up aplenty. People cheered! Carloads of women cheered and applauded as they drove by. A passenger waiting at a light climbed out of his window to cheer and pump his fist over the roof of the car. A woman jogger told me all the bastards need to go, and then “the orange menace.”
Talk about an endorphin rush. But there’s more.
Week after week after week on the overpass, pedestrians under 35 — especially women — thank me when they see YOUR LIFE SHOULDN’T BE THIS HARD and stop and ask to take a photo. A professional woman coming from work says it lifts her spirits to see me there each week. A young woman with tattoos headed to work. A Black veteran, mid-30s, says, “You’ve got that right, brother,” and slaps my back as he passes.
A young woman on a scooter stopped on the overpass last Friday to thank me. (I mean looks me square in the eyes THANK YOU.) She rode to the end of the bridge, turned around and came back, asked if she could take a photo, and thanks me again.
You are not the only ones struggling. Your neighbors need to feel they’ve been seen and heard. They need to know that they are not alone in the fight. Your public actions may not shift policy in D.C. or by themselves turn out “the orange menace,” but lifting spirits is worth doing. It feels good too and encourages others to get involved. The group at the top, about 40, started weeks ago as a mere handful.
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Our friend Susie Madrak is experiencing a cash crunch. She’s looking for whatever help you might lend this week. Making things worse is an insurance settlement delayed on account of paperwork. Plus:
In the meantime, my neurologist suspects I have an obscure lupus-like autoimmune disorder that’s causing all kinds of weird symptoms (for one thing, she says the signals my brain are sending to my feet aren’t making it through and I’m off balance) but first she has to rule out blood cancers, etc. There’s also a lesion on my lung and they want an MRI.
Susie has been posting at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks & Liars for 20 years. It’s a calling, not a great-paying gig. We need to stick together. Help out Susie if you can.