It’s a bummer . . . how to cope

It’s a sad reality. Capitalism is rife with competition, greed, anomie, exploitation, and irresponsibility.

Annoyances and insults. Disparities re: healthcare costs; complexities of retirement planning. The remoteness and indifference of so many of the institutions.

I’m sure you could name your own particular sources of enervation.

I would like to see what life might be like under a rational and sophisticated form of democratic socialism. They’ve gotten somewhere in that regard in northern Europe. What are the characteristics that have enabled Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark to achieve some modicum of rationality?
* they benefited from the European (“First World”) global domination of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries;
* they avoided the massive destruction of the World Wars of the twentieth century;
* they have populations that are small enough and homogeneous enough as to foster a communitarian sensibility.

The United States lacks the latter and so I don’t think we’ll ever get anywhere. The country will dissolve before it will nurture. Progressives can keep their spirits up somewhat by fighting the good fight. But it’s best not to have delusions about the prospects for social responsibility within the belly of the beast.

A certain sadness about It All is inevitable.

How to handle it?

Retain some perspective, some detachment, some humor. Even if it’s gallows humor.

A psychologist would say that in a situation where there’s unavoidable and justifiable sadness . . . don’t deny it, don’t avoid it . . . allow yourself to feel it.

Work for change, but don’t work too much. Try not to try too hard. Spend some time in the woods and spend some time at playgrounds.